January 21, 2021

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January 21, 2021

Alexis von Hoensbroech: “AUA still has 420 million euros”

The airline Austrian Airlines currently has around 420 million euros at its disposal. According to company boss Alexis von Hoensbroech, the airline is "not below the business plan that was the basis for state aid". "Financial buffers for a possible second wave have been built in from the start" and liquidity is therefore good, the AUA General Director emphasized to the Kurier. However, the carrier he heads must practice "strict cost discipline". Von Hoensbroech does not want to give an outlook on possible developments in 2021. However, he hopes that vaccinations and rapid tests will "bring the turnaround in the pandemic. If demand recovers to 60 to 70 percent of pre-crisis levels in the summer, then we will be over the hump." The 2021 summer flight schedule is not yet final. The airline is currently in the middle of the planning phase. Normally this is always done in the fall, but due to the unpredictable pandemic developments, Austrian Airlines is trying to remain as flexible as possible by planning late. Currently, capacity utilization is catastrophic, as many flights are carrying fewer than 20 passengers. Although there are rare "slips" upwards, demand and thus the landing factor are abysmally bad. Very few connections have more than 20 passengers on board, many even fewer. Austrian Airlines says it has reduced capacity to around ten to 15 percent of the level of January 2020. "People want to travel again, we are currently receiving a lot of bookings for the summer holidays. That makes us optimistic," von Hoensbroech told the

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Expensive Otto exit annoys AUA workforce

The departure of Andreas Otto, who most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer at Austrian Airlines, continues to cause anger among the workforce. The reason for this is that the manager is making exorbitantly high demands in the course of his early termination of his contract. It is costing AUA more than a million euros. The supervisory board chaired by Christine Foerster has already fixed the details of the termination of the collaboration with Andreas Otto by circular resolution. Although he resigned himself, Austrian Airlines must pay him more than a million euros, reports the Kurier. According to Lufthansa regulations, the former board member would have been "retired" in two years anyway. The Kurier believes that the early exit was financially more attractive for Andreas Otto, because the requirements of the German Economic Stabilization Fund do not fully apply until the current financial year. Accordingly, claims can be made in the event of early termination of the contract until December 31, 2020. And according to the Kurier, that is exactly what Otto is said to have done. Now an agreement is said to have been reached that he will be paid out for the remainder of his contract and the bonuses. In the summer of 2020, the bonuses that the board of directors granted itself immediately before the state aid was paid out caused a political earthquake. It was only under pressure from Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) that they were paid back and a deferral agreed. Not a single AUA board member has waived his payments completely. Within Austrian Airlines, the financially expensive departure of Andreas Otto is causing considerable discontent, as the company is said to be refusing to allow amicable contract terminations for normal employees, pushing for employee terminations, but paying the remaining contract term plus

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Vienna: Gewessler wants final end for third slope

What eco-fanatics failed to achieve, a tiny virus has managed: Vienna Airport AG is postponing the construction of the third runway, the approval for which had to be legally fought for a long time. This was announced by board member Günther Ofner on Wednesday. Construction work was originally supposed to start between 2024 and 2025. Now the board director assumes that the project will be postponed by "a few years". Ofner stresses, however, that the "project has not been cancelled". There is no new date for the start of construction yet. Other investments are also on hold for an indefinite period. Unsurprisingly, politicians from the governing party "The Greens" are outdoing each other with OTS releases in which the decision is welcomed and at the same time the construction of the third runway at Vienna Airport is called off once and for all. Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) has also already stated that in her opinion the project has been called off for good. "In the future, we will fly significantly less than we do today. For this reason, it makes economic and ecological sense not to push ahead with the construction of the third runway at Vienna Airport," said the government member in an initial statement. State Secretary Magnus Brunner (ÖVP), who is responsible for aviation within Gewessler's ministry, has not yet made any public comments.

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Austria: Court of Auditors criticizes the lack of drone defense

One would logically expect to find technology for defending against drones at airports. But that was not the case in Austria, because the Ministry of the Interior stored it elsewhere and had to take time to get it when needed. The Court of Audit criticizes the approach. It examined the period from 2013 to 2017 and came to the conclusion that the Ministry of the Interior's practice was unrealistic. Neither Austro Control nor the Austrian airports had the appropriate stationary technology available. If there were disruptions caused by drones, the Federal Ministry of the Interior had to literally bring them in, and thus, according to the Court of Audit, their use was only possible with a delay. "Because there is a significant risk of personal injury and damage to property, the Court of Audit recommended that the Ministry of the Interior provide at least one drone defense system on site for each of the largest airports. In addition, strategies for drone defense for airports should be developed," reads the statement from the Parliamentary Directorate.

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Korean Air closes city offices

Skyteam member Korean Air is closing its city offices in Vienna, Zurich, Rome, Milan, Madrid and Frankfurt am Main. The carrier wants to reposition itself in light of the corona pandemic and place a strong emphasis on direct communication in the future. In Europe, the offices in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Prague will remain. Some of the city offices will be integrated into those at the airports. According to the carrier's statement, the contact persons will remain the same. Korean Air did not say whether this measure would also lead to job cuts.

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Norwegian government is taking hold of its wings

The badly hit budget airline Norwegian may now be able to hope for a financial injection from the government. This was initially rejected, but now Minister of Economic Affairs Iselin Nybø has changed her stance. In a statement, she announced that the restructuring plan now presented appears more viable and that the government now believes that granting state support could make a positive contribution to Norway. However, Nybø explicitly rules out the state getting involved or even nationalizing the company. A "hybrid loan" is now being offered, but this has one basic condition: Norwegian must organize 4,5 billion Norwegian kroner on the capital market itself. Only then would the state top up the loan. However, the plan still has to go through the parliamentary process. In an initial reaction, company boss Jacob Schram said: "We still have a big job ahead of us, but we see the government's support as confirmation that we are on the right track."

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After a record minus: Vienna Airport is optimistic about the new year

"2020 is the hardest and probably most bizarre year in the airport's history," with these words today's online press conference of Vienna Airport began. And CEO Julian Jäger is not entirely wrong. The past year set the location back decades - ultimately only 7,8 million passengers use the airport. Nevertheless, things should improve in the second half of the year at the latest. The listed company thus recorded a decrease of 75,3 percent (2019: 31,66 million). This corresponds roughly to the passenger volume in 1994. Both the volume of transfer traffic (-79,2 percent) and the number of local passengers (-74,1 percent) have fallen. The number of take-offs and landings fell by 64,1 percent. Freight volume recorded a decrease of 2020 percent in 23,2. How disastrous this crisis is for VIE can be seen particularly well from one figure: on the day with the lowest passenger numbers, just 154 travelers flew. In the same year, however, this figure was 41.343 - the airport is currently dreaming of such numbers. Things are still looking bleak. For the first time in history, the capital's airport is in the red. That is to change quickly, and the management wants to make a profit again in the new financial year. From today's perspective, sales of around 430 million euros, an operating result (EBITDA) of 150 million and a net profit of four million are expected this year. With currently around 5.000 visitors a day, the first few months of the new year will remain challenging. But an upturn is in sight. From today's perspective, the airport expects this to happen primarily from the second half of the year.

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EU Commission: Alitalia's successor is not allowed to use the brand

If the EU Commission has its way, the traditional name Alitalia could soon be history. Competition authorities are demanding that the successor company Ita refrain from using the brand. Alitalia is to be handled transparently. The new state-owned airline is to launch in spring 2021 with only 52 aircraft. Only about half of Alitalia's employees are to find a new job at Ita. The EU Commission is now setting a condition for the Italian state's three billion euro measure that the new carrier will no longer be in the air under the name Alitalia. In this way, competition authorities want to prevent the impression of a seamless transition from being created. Other conditions that Brussels has sent to Rome include that Alitalia's technology and ground services divisions may not be transferred to Ita. The state has already decided that the new airline will initially concentrate its services on Rome-Fiumicino and Milan-Linate. Most recently, Italian politicians brought up the brand name ITAliana.

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KLM is discontinuing all long-haul flights

The Dutch airline KLM is temporarily suspending all long-haul flights from Friday. The reason for this is that the government has tightened entry regulations and these could become problematic for the crews. Pure cargo routes are also affected. The Netherlands has extended the ban on passenger flights that started in the United Kingdom, South Africa and some South American countries. At the same time, entry regulations have been tightened. KLM is now canceling the 270 weekly long-haul flights for the time being and, on top of that, those connections within Europe where the crews spend the night outside the Netherlands as part of night stops. The government requires that a negative PCR test must be presented and that a rapid test must also be completed immediately before departure. If the latter is positive, the crew member is not allowed to fly. This could mean that the flight cannot be carried out due to a lack of staff. KLM does not want to risk that.

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Luxair flies three new routes

Luxair is defying the Corona crisis and is expanding its route network to include three new destinations. From May 3rd, the Norwegian capital Oslo will be served twice a week, and from June there will even be three flights - Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays - to Scandinavia. From June 19th, Luxair will fly once a week - Saturdays - to Rostock on the North German Baltic Sea. And from June 3rd to the Serbian capital. Belgrade will be served twice a week - Thursdays and Sundays. During the carnival holidays, one-off flights will also be offered to Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah (February 15th - 19th) and to Sälen in Sweden (also February 15th - 19th), reports wort.lu.

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