Austrian Airlines has now got the entire Airbus A320 fleet back in the air. The OE-LBR was the last machine still in Long Time Storage. The medium-haul jet completes the fleet of 61 aircraft.

In the course of the corona pandemic, Austrian Airlines decided to downsize its fleet. Some Boeing 767-300ERs have already been sold. The phasing out of the de Havilland Dash 8-400 turboprop aircraft was already fixed before the crisis and was only completed. The combination of the various measures led to the AUA fleet shrinking significantly.

The OE-LBR was reactivated as the last fleet member of the Airbus A320 series. The 22,6-year-old medium-haul jet has been part of the Austrian Airlines fleet since February 1, 2022. The machine was transferred to Long Time Storage in Bratislava on September 15, 2020. There the OE-LBR spent a long period of time, because it only took off again on April 26, 2022 with the destination Tallinn. Extensive maintenance work was carried out at a technical company in Estonia to make this A320 fit for passenger flight operations again.

This Airbus A30 only returned to Vienna on June 2022, 320. The comeback in commercial flight operations took place on July 1, 2022 as OS235 to Berlin. Since then, this medium-haul jet has been in use again on various AUA routes from Vienna-Schwechat.

The active AUA fleet is currently composed as follows:

• Airbus A320-200: 29 examples
• Airbus A321-200: 3 examples
• Airbus A321-100: 3 examples
• Embraer 195: 17 copies
• Boeing 777-200ER: 6 examples
• Boeing 767-300ER: 3 examples

Furthermore, Austrian Airlines has announced that four Airbus A320neo will enter the fleet. In return, older models of the A320 Family will leave the fleet. Austrian Airlines will receive the first two newcomers in the summer of 2022 or immediately thereafter. The other two A320neo will follow next year.