The Chamber of Commerce and the Vida union are currently in possibly final negotiations on the new Lauda collective agreement. This could be decisive for the future of the Vienna base. Aviation.Direct spoke to Lauda boss Andreas Gruber.

Since this morning, Vida, the works council, the Chamber of Commerce and Lauda management have met for final talks that should lead to the preservation of the Vienna base. The negotiations are still ongoing. The union expressed massive concerns the day before, but has not yet made any binding commitments on whether or not to sign.

In the meantime, a total of 21 Airbus A320s have already started taking off. These are transferred to Palma de Mallorca, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and Stansted. Aviation.Direct spoke to Lauda Managing Director Andreas Gruber about his perspective on things and what has to happen so that the base continues and the jobs are retained.

Aviation Direct: Yesterday an SPÖ member literally called the Lauda management's approach “a mess”. The Vida union yesterday informed its members that Lauda and the WKO are "zero willingness to compromise". What reason do you insist on concluding this collective agreement and how do you respond to Vida’s allegation that it should include salaries under the needs-based minimum income?
Andrew Gruber: I find it very sad when politicians make statements before they have background details and tangible information. The Member of the National Council addressed here judges false information. We have now made it clear again that the new KV brings with it a minimum gross salary of 1.298 euros per month. However, the employee does not yet make a hand stroke for the base salary. The individual flight allowances are added as soon as the employee gets on a plane. On average, a junior flight attendant would earn around EUR 24.450 gross per year under the new, adapted collective agreement. This is around three percent less than before and well above the needs-based minimum income. 

Aviation Direct: In this context, what can you publicly promise your employees and the Vida union that could possibly lead to the conclusion of the collective agreement and why is it particularly important in your opinion to keep the Lauda jobs?
Andrew Gruber: My top priority is to secure and maintain jobs in Austria. So we naturally hope that Vida will still sign the collective agreement. The WKO and a vast majority - 95 percent of the pilots and over 70 percent of the flight attendants - of our employees have already approved the new conditions. The Vida should represent the interests of our crews and strive to secure jobs. There are no alternatives for employees in the aviation industry. It has just been published that Easyjet is cutting almost every third job. All over the world, airlines are on the ground and are shedding staff en masse - BA 12.000 jobs, Wizz 1000 jobs, Alitalia 6000 and so on. It would therefore be negligent on the part of the union to permanently destroy the existing jobs in Austria.

Aviation Direct: Why does the new collective agreement have to be concluded so quickly? You have the possibility to keep the Austrian employees on short-time work for a very long time according to the current information situation and thus have no costs. In March and April you also demanded that you want at least two thirds of the state aid that Austrian Airlines could get for Lauda. Why don't you apply for state aid after all?
Andrew Gruber: The current crisis is unique and a very great challenge for the entire industry. In 9/11, aviation was grounded for four days, currently flight operations are grounded for up to four months. There is also great uncertainty about demand over the next few months. In order to stimulate this, very cheap tickets will probably be needed on the market. For this we need planning security from June / July, so a quick decision has to be made regarding the base in Vienna. In the past few weeks there have been many appointments with Vida that we have scheduled, but unfortunately no appointment was kept until the week before last. 

Aviation.Direct: In Germany, short-time working was rejected and employees announced that the May salaries could not be paid due to a lack of funds. In silence, your own employees are accusing you of delaying bankruptcy and speculating that you are flying out of the planes because a bankruptcy application could be filed shortly. So is Ryanair dropping today's Laudamotion GmbH?
Andrew Gruber: We are in ongoing discussions with the Employment Agency regarding short-time work for colleagues stationed in Germany. We sincerely regret the action taken by the Würzburg Employment Agency, which has revoked the promise of short-time work. This happens in the worst economic crisis in the history of aviation, although our colleagues stationed in Germany live in Germany, work there and pay their social security contributions in Germany. We have appealed against the decision and due to the ongoing legal proceedings, I cannot comment on the content. The salary payment for May is unfortunately late, but will be paid out as soon as possible. 

Aviation.Direct: Hand on heart, please answer a question that many of your employees ask themselves: As an employed managing director, you are “only” an employee. Have you registered with the AMS for the early warning system yourself? Many of your employees are interested in this question.
Andrew Gruber: Of course I am also affected. The Lauda management waived 50 percent salary in the crisis. We're all in the same boat here. We have worked hard as a team for the past 2,5 years to push our growth plans in Vienna. Over 80 destinations from Vienna were on the program this summer and over ten million passengers were expected. We were thus by far the second largest airline in Austria. It has also always been a matter of great concern to us to carry the name of our founder Niki Lauda and his vision out into the world. Therefore, to close the Vienna base would be a sad loss and a great personal disappointment for all of us.