Vienna airport director Günther Ofner is once again involved in the tariff dispute at Austrian Airlines in his role as aviation specialist group chairman in the Chamber of Commerce. In a broadcast he warned that the strikes and works meetings would play into the hands of the AUA's competitors.

However, it is not only the many flight cancellations that have occurred in recent weeks due to work stoppages and company meetings that employee representatives have called on flying staff to attend that are the reason why potential passengers are also looking for alternatives. In recent years, Austrian Airlines has largely adapted to the level of its competitors Ryanair and Wizzair in terms of the services included on short and medium-haul routes. You are just a little more accommodating when it comes to hand luggage. Last year in particular, the AUA, which always portrays itself as a premium provider in advertising, increased its prices significantly. Many passengers are downright annoyed that the economy class product hardly stands out from the competition in the low-cost segment. Only the price is sometimes significantly higher.

This is exactly where the trade unionists' criticism comes in, because the AUA was able to make a record profit last year, not least due to greatly increased ticket prices while at the same time saving on previously included services, for which additional payments have been made for some time. According to employee representatives, the staff didn't benefit from this because the dispute over wage increases continues. Among the network airlines in the Lufthansa Group, AUA ranks at the bottom in terms of salary levels. The trade unionists are demanding that the level be raised to that paid by the parent company in Germany, for example. That's up to 40 percent more per month. Flight attendants currently earn more in their first few years of employment at Wizz Air, Eurowings Europe and Lauda Europe than at Austrian Airlines. According to employee representatives, this circumstance also does not fit with the AUA's “premium claim”. However, it should also be noted that it was the trade unionists who co-negotiated and co-signed both the current Eurowings Europe KV and that of Austrian Airlines. Lauda Europe and Wizz Air do not have collective agreements. This also applies to Easyjet Europe, but this provider is not important because there is not a single pilot or flight attendant stationed in Austria.

Ofner claims that employee representatives are demanding a “land of milk and honey”.

In any case, Günther Ofner, in his role as WKO specialist group chairman, is of the opinion that the works meetings and strikes organized by the works council and Vida would play into the hands of the low-cost competition: “The flight cancellations provoked by Vida and the AUA board works council are an act of driving away customers and are a pretext into the hands of the AUA competition. They not only endanger thousands of jobs in the AUA, but in the entire aviation industry and ultimately also at the airport and in the supplier companies, all of which are ruthlessly taken hostage. It is now high time to stop the saber rattling and reach the necessary solution quickly through constructive negotiations. This must be based on realistic demands for inflation compensation.”

He even claims that the employee representatives are demanding a real “land of milk and honey”. Ofner said: “That only exists in fairy tales, in reality jobs can only be secured if the AUA company is competitive and can work profitably. This is the only way to make the necessary three billion euros in investments in fleet renewal. Anyone who wants or promises otherwise is grossly negligently putting the future of their own job at risk. During the negotiations, the employee side inadmissibly conflated the issue of the upcoming inflation compensation with a massive change in the salary structure, which would lead to unaffordable burdens. In serious negotiations, however, these questions should be treated separately. However, the required structural adjustment cannot be achieved without destroying AUA’s own company.”

Although Günther Ofner clearly appears in the broadcasts as the aviation specialist group chairman of the WKO, his full-time job is as a board member of Flughafen Wien AG, whose largest customer is Austrian Airlines.