Lauda has become Ryanair Austria - at least in the social media channels, because these have been "reflagged" to the Ryanair Austria brand in the last few days. All logo icons no longer appear in red and white, but in blue and yellow.

While the closure of the Lauda location in Stuttgart has already been decided, there is also a crunch at the sister company Malta Air in Germany. After the new collective agreement, which provides for lower wages in particular for the pilots, was rejected by the union members, mass layoffs and closings of bases are now to take place.

According to the Cockpit Association, only 49,4 percent of German Malta Air pilots voted for the new collective agreement. “You support the opinion of the board of the Vereinigung Cockpit eV, according to which the required collective agreement would have had the potential to harm both the affected members at Malta Air and the entire pilotage nationwide. The board of directors also considered the duration of the job security offered until March 2021 to be inadequate against the background of the long-term cuts planned until 2024, ”the VC said in a broadcast. “Curious: Measures to increase productivity would mean that more employees would become dispensable. The alleged surplus of personnel in the cockpit could have solidified for this reason alone. Particularly curious: the employer wants to keep new hires open in this mixed situation under even further reduced conditions. That would have been of use to him, after all, Ryanair recently announced that it would like to seize its opportunities in the German market and also bid for the new take-off and landing rights currently to be awarded in Frankfurt am Main and Munich. "