At the end of February 2024, Austrian Airlines will take delivery of the first Boeing 787-9. It is a used aircraft, but will initially only have a short stay in Vienna. The Dreamliner will then be prepared in the Republic of China for use with the AUA.

Austrian Airlines is not getting any brand-new long-haul aircraft – at least for the time being. The first two units were previously used by Bamboo Airways. Due to delivery delays, Lufthansa will only be able to pass on machines intended for AUA later. In order to meet the schedule, they looked for replacements available on the global market. However, this is not a “bridging solution”, but rather a permanent solution. At the same time, Austrian Airlines boss Annette Mann announced that there will not be ten Dreamliners in total as originally announced, but eleven. So one more unit.

The company confirmed that the first Boeing 787-9 will arrive in Vienna at the end of February 2024. The technical company will then carry out some checks. The long-haul aircraft will then be transferred to Taipei (Republic of China) for maintenance purposes. The second unit will be taken over shortly afterwards, but it will not make a short visit to Vienna, but will be taken directly to the MRO operation in the Republic of China. Both Dreamliners were previously used by Bamboo Airways.

Austrian Airlines currently assumes that the first two Boeing 2024-787s will arrive in Vienna ready for use at the beginning of May 9. According to company information, the jets will initially be used for training purposes on short-haul routes. However, which routes are still open. Commercial replacement deployment is targeted for June or July 2024 on North American routes.

“The Boeing 2028-787 will gradually replace the existing long-haul jets of the 9 and 777 families from Austrian Airlines by 767,” said the carrier. The two Dreamliners, which will be launched shortly, will be followed by nine more copies. Some of these are used aircraft that are currently in use at Lufthansa and some of them are to be taken over new from the factory.