DUBAI - With boom conditions prevailing in Dubai and Vienna, the Austrian national carrier is planning to operate daily flights on Dubai-Vienna sector from next summer, says Karim El Sanadily, Regional Manager of Austrian Airlines for Arab Gulf Cooperation Council.
Re-launched in April this year after a brief halt following the Iraq war, Austrian has been operating three flights between the Austrian capital Vienna and Dubai. "With the increase in demand and sustained load factor of 75-80 per cent throughout the year, Austrian Airlines is increasing the frequency to five flights a week from next month," El Sanadily said.
The group, which has the average fleet age of 5.8 years, is operating Boeing 737-800 with 16 business class and 142 economy class seats. "Sales during the last six months far exceeded our expectations in the last six months and the Dubai venture of the airline is considered very successful as the twin cities of Vienna and Dubai experiencing tremendous boom," El Sanadily added.
The passenger traffic to Austria is a mixed bag as people travel for business, to avail of spas, medical and leisure attractions. Austrian business ventures are also increasing in the UAE. Right now there 42 Austrian companies operating in the country. In view of the good traffic flow, the Austrian has launched a Ramadan promotional fare of Dh1, 900 to any destination Europe against the shortest return fare of Dh2, 500 at normal time. Anyone can avail of this promotion provided he/she purchases the ticket on or before November 15, begins travel on or before November 30 and completes the travel by December 15 with a minimum stay of four days and a maximum of 30 days.
The increasing activity of Austrian Airlines in Dubai is drawing good demand from Abu Dhabi and Bahrain. The group is planning to introduce flights between Vienna and Abu Dhabi as well as Vienna and Bahrain by next year. It is considering possibilities of expanding its operations to Saudi Arabia.
Initially, Austrian Airlines is looking for Sales Proration Agreements (SPA) with local/national carriers such as Gulf Air and Saudi Airlines under which these airlines will carry passengers for Austrian until the airline operates its own flights.
The airlines' expansion plans also include flights to Kazakhstan, India, China and Australia etc.
Al Naboodah Travel and Tourism is the General Sale Agent for Austrian Airlines in Dubai. Kanoo Travel, one of the largest travel companies in the Middle Mast, represents the airline in Abu Dhabi.
The strategy of the Austrian to expand its operations drastically in the Eastern Europe in 2004 with the slogan of "Focus East" is producing a domino impact on the airlines business, according to El Sanadily. This has resulted in remarkable traffic increase between East Europe and Dubai and vice versa.
In order to cater to the needs created by the EU expansion and to take advantage of the new opportunities the Austrian Airlines Group has made several strategic and commercial arrangements. According to Dr Josef E. Burger, Chief Commercial Officer, the airline has launched its expansion programme. In the summer schedule, the Austrian launched the broadest offensive on the geographical segment ever implemented at the Group.
It increased the frequencies to Central and Eastern Europe by 102 flights per week. With the 30 extra frequencies to the Western Europe and 26 new frequencies on its long haul programme are factored in, in fact, the group launched 158 additional weekly flights in total.
"Our offensive programme, Focus East, is a specialisation that the Group has implemented quickly and coherently in the context of the eastward expansion of the European Union. From May last we have launched our programme of daily direct flights from Bratislava to London, Paris and Brussels. With our new total of 38 destinations served, many of which make use of attractively timed connections at the beginning and end of the working day, we are building on our market leadership from and to Central and East Europe, and extending our advantage over the competition in our specialist region," Dr Burger said.BY JOSEPH LONTH
© Khaleej Times 2004
