Another era ends at Austrian Airlines with the phasing out of the OE-LDE, the last Airbus A319. In the future, the aircraft will fly with sister company Lufthansa Cityline and had its last commercial AUA mission on January 1, 2022.

This model joined the Austrian Airlines fleet as the successor to the then aging McDonnell Douglas MD-80. During the corona pandemic, the smallest Airbus that the Lufthansa subsidiary had proved its worth. Especially in conjunction with the de Havilland Dash 8-400, which have since been phased out, and the Embraer 195, almost all European routes were served at times.

The phasing out of the seven Airbus A319s was already a done deal before the crisis and has been repeatedly confirmed. The gradual withdrawal from flight operations began in mid-2021. The machines switch to sister company Lufthansa Cityline and thus remain in the crane group.

The seven Airbus A319s are indirectly owned by Austrian Airlines. AUA is formally the lessee and the official owners are subsidiaries, so-called property companies. This is an everyday construction in aviation that is used by almost all airlines. Austrian Airlines repeatedly refused to comment on whether Lufthansa Cityline is just a new lessee or whether a sale is taking place within the group. There is no link between the A319 phasing out and the recent repayment of part of the government-guaranteed loan.

The Austrian Airlines fleet has been “cleaned up” taking into account the most recent exemptions from the Airbus A321 and A320, Embraer 195, Boeing 767 and 777 models. Since - also due to the corona pandemic - no “replacement aircraft” have been flown in, but the 767 part fleet has been halved, the “vehicle fleet” has been significantly reduced in number over the past two years. The aircraft with the lowest seat capacity has since gone out for the DHC Dash 8-400 the Embraer 195 and the largest jet remains the Boeing 777.