Austrian Airlines, Austria's national airline, recorded an adjusted EBIT of -2024 million euros in the first half of 62. Despite a slight increase in revenue from 1,064 billion euros in the previous year to 1,070 billion euros, the result fell short of expectations.

This development is due to a number of challenges that the company had to overcome, including a wage dispute lasting several months, geopolitical uncertainties, difficult weather conditions in Europe, rising site costs and stagnating ticket prices. In addition, two longer outages in the fleet and investments in new long-haul aircraft had a negative impact on the half-year result.

In the first six months of the year, total revenues rose by 1 percent to 1,1 billion euros, while total expenses climbed by 8 percent to 1,2 billion euros. The increase in expenses is mainly due to higher operating costs and investments in the fleet. The introduction of new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners into the fleet has begun, which caused additional personnel costs. As of June 30, 2024, the airline employed 6.204 people, an increase of 5 percent.

Compared to the previous year, passenger numbers rose by 6 percent to 6,498 million. At the same time, the number of seat kilometers increased by 8 percent to 12,5 billion. However, capacity utilization fell from 80,0 percent to 78,3 percent. Despite these setbacks, 98,3 percent of the flight schedule was flown regularly.

The most important figures for the first half of 1 at a glance (rounded)

The most important figures for the second quarter of 2024 in Overview (rounded)

New challenges and strategic investments

Operating conditions were complicated by various factors in the first half of the year. In addition to geopolitical developments in the Middle East and weather-related disruptions, the airline suffered from rising site costs, particularly at Vienna Airport. The airline also faced the challenge of dealing with stagnating ticket prices while operating costs rose.

Austrian Airlines CEO Annette Mann emphasized the need to achieve strong results in the second half of the year in order to continue investing in the future. A key goal is to improve the customer experience and maintain stable flight operations. The company plans to further advance the digitalization of its processes and increase efficiency in order to ensure competitiveness.

Successes despite challenges

Despite the difficulties, there were also positive developments. Austrian Airlines started introducing the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner into its long-haul fleet and received an award for the best cabin crew in Europe at the Skytrax World Airline Awards.

In addition, the airline expanded its route network to include new destinations such as Boston, Bremen and Tbilisi. The new connection to Boston in particular was well received and is now operated up to six times a week all year round. Austrian Airlines now offers connections to over 125 destinations worldwide, 18 of which are intercontinental.

Outlook and strategic focus

Looking ahead to the second half of the year, Austrian Airlines plans to further optimize its capacities and services. This includes expanding the route network, particularly in the Austrian federal states, and integrating new aircraft into the fleet. The airline expects the future Austrian federal government to take measures to strengthen Austria's competitiveness as a business location.

Austrian Airlines is looking forward to the second half of 2024 with confidence, in which it aims to achieve a high double-digit result and lay the foundations for further investments.