The 2024 summer flight schedule brings a significant improvement for Klagenfurt, as an ATR72 turboprop aircraft will be stationed in the Carinthian state capital on behalf of Austrian Airlines. This means there will again be an early morning connection to the AUA hub in Vienna and flight times towards Klagenfurt will also improve in the evening.

In the wake of the announcement that Austrian Airlines would be separating from the de Havilland Dash 8-400 fleet, the then company boss Alexis von Hoensbroech said that it was conceivable that turboprop aircraft could be taken into wet lease for domestic flights and particularly short international connections. Things then became very quiet around this topic because the corona pandemic overshadowed pretty much everything and also had an impact on Austrian Airlines' fleet planning. For example, the de Havilland Dash 8-400 was used for a little longer than expected, but this type of machine has now left the fleet.

Austrian Airlines will wet lease two ATR2024-72s operated by Braathens Regional Airways in the summer of 600. These will be deployed to Klagenfurt, Graz, Bologna, Belgrade, Zagreb, Warsaw, Kosice and Leipzig/Halle. A spokeswoman confirmed the wetlease cooperation to Aviaiton.Direct. She further explained that the two aircraft will fly in the Braathens livery and will not receive any AUA decals.

“Due to the fact that demand for air travel on some regional routes has not returned to its full extent after the pandemic, this poses new challenges for Austrian Airlines: In particular, the sluggish recovery in business travel demand is leading to a lower level of demand, which as a consequence means that service is economically viable , adapted capacity structures required. Routes such as from Vienna to Klagenfurt or Košice are not ideal for Austrian Airlines' current aircraft fleet, both economically and operationally. In the future, these routes will now be served by Braathens Regional Airlines (BRA), which means that aircraft and crews will be provided by the partner airline. Of course, passengers can expect the usual Austrian Airlines catering product on board. As usual, both business and economy class seats are offered. As usual, the flights can be booked via all Austrian Airlines booking channels. The flights will be operated with two ATR propeller aircraft, which are more efficient due to their lower capacity for the routes in question, emit less CO2 and, with 72 seats, have the appropriate seating volume for the markets served," explains Austrian Airlines.

The new Klagenfurt flight schedule looks like this:

Braathens flies short feeder flights on behalf of the AUA

It is well known that the Embraer 195 aircraft currently used in the direction of Klagenfurt have already led to this and other short feeder routes being thinned out due to high operating costs - compared to turboprop aircraft. Now Austrian Airlines is trying to counteract this and is wet leasing two ATR72s operated by Braathens. One of the two machines will be stationed in Kosice and the other in Klagenfurt.

“On some regional routes, demand has not returned to its full extent after the pandemic. In order to be able to connect these routes to our Vienna hub in the future, we need adapted capacity structures. I am pleased to have found a proven partner in this challenging segment in Braathens Regional Airlines,” says Austrian Airlines CCO Michael Trestl.

Klagenfurt Airport is pleased with the upcoming change on the Vienna route, which management describes as a “significant upgrade”. Carinthia would then be connected again to the morning wave at the AUA hub in Vienna and return flights on the evening wave would be possible again. The usability of the route would also be significantly improved in point-to-point traffic, as Carinthian businesses could make optimal use of the double end of the day.

“The good flight times to the Star Alliance Hub Vienna with our partner Austrian Airlines take us a big step further in our development. Now we all have to use the offer in order to secure and expand it in the long term. An important milestone has been reached, we will now work through our further tasks step by step. There is still a lot to do,” said Klagenfurt Airport Director Maximilian Wildt.

At the beginning of the 2024 summer flight schedule, the two turboprop aircraft are scheduled to take over some routes that are currently served by Austrian Airlines with Embraer 195s. These include Klagenfurt-Vienna and Kosice Vienna as well as Graz-Vienna. The machines will also be used in Bologna, Belgrade, Warsaw, Leipzig/Halle and Zagreb as follows:

“We are very pleased about the collaboration with Austrian Airlines and hope to be able to develop it further over time. We have extensive experience in providing this type of service at a high quality level and look forward to offering this to the Austrian market as well,” says Ulrika Matsgård, CEO of Braathens Regional Airlines.

Austrian Airlines does not cooperate with Skyalps

Just a few weeks ago, Skyalps boss Josef Gostner spoke about an interview he gave to the regional press in South Tyrol. brought into discussion as an AUA subcontractor. The Lufthansa subsidiary has not signed a contract with Skyalps, but has decided to work with the Swedish Braathens. This will fly with two ATR2024s for Austrian Airlines at least during the summer period of 72. This means Skyalps is “out of the race”.

It remains to be seen whether this decision will have any impact on Linz, Innsbruck and Friedrichshafen will have, because the airports there are hoping for a collaboration between Lufthansa and Skyalps. According to reports, the South Tyrolean company is hoping that an interlining cooperation will come about. However, passengers would have little benefit from this, as only full-fare tickets could be sold, which would be disproportionately expensive for travelers.