The low-cost airline Easyjet will not reactivate the non-stop route between Berlin-Brandenburg and Vienna in the 2022/23 winter flight schedule. The sale of tickets has already stopped and the Austrian capital has been completely wiped out of the reservation system.

The orange low-cost airline started this route at the beginning of 2018 - at that time still from Berlin-Tegel - in the wake of the Air Berlin bankruptcy. Initially, wet lease aircraft from WDL and SmartLynx were used. It was only later that Easyjet Europe switched to self-operated machines. At times Vienna was offered both from Tegel and from Schönefeld.

Due to the corona pandemic, this route was repeatedly discontinued and then reactivated. However, at no point has it restored to the scale it was before the pandemic. Last was the Berlin-Vienna connection been put on indefinite hiatus over the summer of 2022. Previously, all other Easyjet routes that were offered from the Austrian capital had been gradually discontinued.

weak demand

Until a few days ago, tickets were still being sold between Berlin and Vienna. A tabloid derived from this that there will definitely be a comeback of the orange-colored low-cost airline in the capital of Austria. However, this route was already on the brink at this point, because on the one hand Easyjet has been criticizing the high fees in Vienna-Schwechat for a long time and on the other hand the Berlin-Brandenburg base greatly reduced at the start of the 2022/23 winter timetable period. Even before the corona pandemic, the Vienna route was a route that was about to be abandoned because the yield was weak in direct comparison with other destinations from Berlin-Brandenburg.

Easyjet currently has no plans to reactivate its presence at Vienna-Schwechat Airport. The reasons for this are wide-ranging. Not only the costs at Austria's largest airport play a role, but also the fact that the company has been changing since the beginning of the corona pandemic. If possible, the focus is on so-called high-yield routes and more on routes relevant to tourism. This is also due to the fact that the number of business travelers is still well below the pre-crisis level. In contrast to arch-rival Ryanair, Easyjet was and is often booked for business purposes. The absence of business people also affects the Berlin route, which is why the advance booking figures are massively below expectations.

Austrian Airlines retains monopoly on Vienna-Berlin

The competitor Austrian Airlines will continue to fly in the monopoly between the capitals of Germany and Austria. The fact that the smallest type of aircraft in the fleet, the Embraer 195, is used particularly frequently shows that demand on this route is well below the pre-crisis level. From Easyjet's point of view, it is therefore understandable that this route currently has no potential for two carriers to be able to fly profitably. However, the AUA will hardly be bothered by the fact that there is still no competitor between Berlin and Vienna, because then you have the so-called "price sovereignty" in your own hands and do not have to react to any "attacks about the price" by competitors.

Although Ryanair has long been said to have ambitions to continue growing in Germany-Austria traffic, there are currently no plans for any flights between Berlin and Vienna. From the Austrian capital Bremen, Dortmund and Cologne/Bonn, the Irish low-coster has in its portfolio. Until March 2020, the then Laudamotion flew up to twice a day between Vienna and Stuttgart. Contrary to management's assurances, this route was never reactivated. The state capital of Baden-Württemberg has been completely removed from the Ryanair Group's route network. She had that too Closure of the Lauda base in Stuttgart. The pink-colored competitor Wizz Air had Bremen, Dortmund and Cologne/Bonn from Vienna, among others, but they have completely withdrawn from the Germany-Austria business.

Easyjet escaped the Vienna low-cost airline match

Easyjet was once – after Austrian Airlines and the Air Berlin Group – one of the largest providers in Vienna-Schwechat. However, at no time had not even a single aircraft been stationed on site. All routes were served with "outside" stationed aircraft. However, the decline did not start with the corona pandemic, but had its origins in the fierce competition between Wizz Air, Laudamotion (Ryanair), Level Europe, Vueling, Austrian Airlines and Easyjet.

The orange low-cost airline gradually discontinued one route after the other. For example, on the Milan route, five carriers briefly matched each other over the price. Most recently, flights to Amsterdam, Basel and Berlin have been abandoned. Although there wasn't much competition on these three routes, the weak demand meant that the yield was not really satisfactory. Easyjet also justified the withdrawal of aircraft from Berlin-Brandenburg with the fact that the aircraft can be used more profitably on other routes. This also applies to the route between Vienna and Berlin, which was in any case not very productive from the start.

This ends the era of the orange low-cost airline in Vienna – at least for the time being. Nobody wants to speak of a “final end”, because there are always comebacks in aviation that nobody expected. In a way, the principle “never say never” applies.