After a long struggle about the future of the Lauda base in Vienna, it is now clear: It will continue with ten Airbus A320s. Anyone who has not voted for the new collective agreement or has used the wording of the controversial works council must now fear for the job.

The Lauda base in Vienna will definitely not be closed, but will gradually resume flight operations from July 1, 2020. The sister company Ryanair DAC will not take over the "OE routes", but these will continue to be served by Lauda with the Airbus A320. The company announced this on Monday afternoon.

However, due to the consequences of the corona pandemic, the number of aircraft stationed in Vienna will be reduced from 16 to ten A320s, at least for the time being. In this context, there will also be a reduction in staff. A circular from Saturday also gives an indication of which group of people it could hit, because it was written that the jobs of those employees who agree to the new collective agreement will be saved. Conversely, this could mean that those Lauda employees who have not given their consent or who have used wording from the works council not recognized by the company will continue to fear for their jobs. There is of course no official confirmation of this.

According to the company, 90 percent of the pilots and 66 percent of the flight attendants have accepted the new collective agreement and the conditions it contains. This approval caused the owner Ryanair Holdings PLC to reverse the decision to close the Vienna base. Flight operations will begin on July 1, 2020 with initially three Airbus A320s and a total of ten aircraft of this type are to be deployed from Vienna-Schwechat by August.

“Lauda would like to thank our pilots in Vienna and the cabin crew for their heroic efforts over the past week, which have successfully convinced the Vida union to accept Lauda's new collective agreement, which will change their employment contracts from July 1st and make Lauda fit Intense post-Covid competition against Austrian Airlines, which will receive up to 800 million euros in government subsidies, while Lauda does not receive a cent to be overlooked. Lauda will reopen in Vienna in July with lower aircraft costs, lower airport costs and more efficient CT. We will need this cost efficiency in order to be able to successfully compete against the state-subsidized Lufthansa subsidiary (Austrian Airlines) and the tax avoidance of Wizzair, which pays its Viennese crews in Switzerland and thus evades Austrian taxes. We sincerely regret that this reopening of our Vienna base will not save all the jobs of our pilots and flight attendants, but we will do everything we can to return to growth in Vienna. The jobs of all of our pilots and flight attendants who have accepted our new collective agreement are likely to be saved. Together we will build a new and successful Lauda and achieve our goal of making Lauda Austria's No. 1 airline, ”says managing director David O'Brien, who indirectly suggests that the jobs of those who did not vote for CT are shaky .