“Everyone is waiting for summer”: The lifting of travel restrictions is crucial for the upswing in summer. But the aviation recovery is progressing more slowly than forecast at the beginning of the crisis.

Austrian Airlines also got off to a rather bumpy start to the second Corona year: Due to the ongoing pandemic, the Austrian airline is making a loss of more than 2021 million euros in the first quarter of 100. The flight schedule remained drastically thinned, the high numbers of infections and travel restrictions in Europe brought an 84 percent drop in passengers by March compared to the first quarter of 2020.

By the end of March, the AUA had carried 308.000 passengers. For comparison: last year in the first quarter there were still 1,9 million. The turnover of the Lufthansa subsidiary consequently fell by 79 percent to 61 million euros, last year it was 287 million euros. 

Despite these horrific numbers, the AUA can still show well-filled coffers. This is what CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech admits during today's press conference. “Our liquidity allows AUA, lets me, still sleep soundly. We still have enough altitude. ”If the upswing arrives as planned in the summer, he sees no further need for state aid. 

The implementation of the planned travel facilitation is decisive for the summer. In any case, the carrier is fulfilling its part of the agreement and is gradually expanding the route network by July. Then 100 destinations are to be flown to, with a focus on tourist destinations.

Recovery sluggish - slower than planned

Since the recovery in aviation is progressing more slowly than forecast at the beginning of the crisis, the extension of short-time working is essential. And preferably until at least the first quarter of next year. “Instruments such as the current short-time working model help us a lot in these times. An extension of short-time working for sectors that are particularly hard hit, such as ours, until March 2022 is essential, ”says Alexis von Hoensbroech. 

In the horror year 2020, the AUA had flown in minus half a billion euros at the operational level. Adjusted for aircraft write-downs, it was 469 million euros, unadjusted 529 million euros. After deducting the state subsidy of EUR 150 million, an adjusted operating loss of EUR 319 million was reported last year.

German stopover routes only one-time thing

Some of the measures taken by Austrian Airlines cause confusion here and there. The carrier will be offering the Vienna-Stuttgart route in May with a stop in Munich. There will also be flights to Hamburg via Berlin next month. This is currently only the result of the sluggish demand, says von Hoensbroech and with a smile calls these solutions "emergency nail actions" on certain days. In any case, these decisions should only be of a short-term nature.