Austrian Airlines Group taken over by Lufthansa

On September 3, 2009 the Austrian Airlines Group (AAG) officially was taken over by Lufthansa, as the 41,6 percent shares managed by the Austrian state industry holding OEIAG were transferred to Lufthansa in a signing ceremony. Lufthansa now controls more than 90 percent of AAG's shares.

In a press conference held at Vienna International Airport Lufthansa CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber expressed his satisfaction with the takeover and the fact, that Lufthansa had been able to complete it despite the economic crisis.

Mayerhuber confirmed his confidence in AAG's top management, COO Peter Malanik and CCO Andreas Bierwirth. The product Austrian Airlines is ok, he stated, the costs are not. Therefore AAG has to become profitable as soon as possible. It "has the become cash neutral this year and cash positive in 2010".

Dictated by the European Union's conditions for the take-over, AAG has to become positive again before further growth is allowed. The 15 percent reduction in capacity have already been achieved. All the Bombardier CRJ-200 aud Dash 8-300 will leave the fleet of Austrian Arrows soon, as 50-seaters are becoming increasingly uneconomic to operate. Unfortunately 1000 of the 7500 employees of AAG will have to be made redundant.

Bierwirth revealed that two or three destinations will be taken out of the continental network. The east European network will remain more or less intact, as well as the long range network, as it's performance has improved during recent weeks. The brands Lauda Air and Austrian Arrows (operated by Tyrolean Airways) will be maintained.

LH Chief Officer-Group Airlines and Corporate Human Resources Stefan Lauer, who is responsible for the integration of AAG into the Lufthansa system of airlines, is the new chairman of the supervisory board, in which Wolfgang Mayrhuber also has a seat.

After 51 years of flying independent, Austrian Airlines has kept it's own identity but is now owned by Lufthansa. Given the new reality in European aviation, where small airlines find it more and more difficult to survive, that is certainly not the worst possible result.

As Wolfgang Mayerhuber - who by the way was born in upper Austria - said: "From this day on we begin to develop the future of Austrian Airlines together."