After Salzburg and Klagenfurt, Austrian Airlines will also give up ground handling in Linz, Upper Austria. Negotiations are currently in progress with the service provider ISS Ground Services, who could take over the staff. The AUA employees affected have already been informed in writing in a virtual works meeting.
From the cover letter available to Aviation Direct: “Against the background of the currently extremely challenging economic situation due to the Corona crisis, both for LNZ Airport and OS, we are with LNZ Airport and the ground handling service provider“ ISS Ground Services “Entered into trilateral discussions about the future setup of ground handling at the LNZ location. The content of these discussions is also a possible transfer of operations of the ground handling services to ISS Ground Services. "
In autumn 2020, it was announced that Austrian Airlines would be discontinuing its ground handling services in Klagenfurt and Salzburg . In Carinthia, a solution was reached with the airport, allowing the affected AUA employees to transfer to a subsidiary of the airport as part of a business transfer . The situation in Salzburg is different, as negotiations regarding a business transfer there have failed. The airline employees have the option of transferring to Vienna, but this is likely to be impractical for most Salzburg residents.
"We can confirm that we recently started talks with Linz Airport and ISS Ground Services about a transfer of operations at the Austrian Airlines station there. The talks involve a transfer of operations to ISS Ground Services, which will allow all 26 jobs at the site to be retained. The talks are still at a very early stage. An exact date for the planned change has not yet been determined," AUA spokeswoman Tanja Gruber told Aviation Direct.
An exact date for the withdrawal from ground handling in Linz has not yet been set. Austrian Airlines is currently negotiating intensively with ISS Ground Services about a possible takeover of the staff. At the staff meeting it was said that an attempt would be made to secure a one-year employment guarantee. An AUA employee told Aviation Direct that the mood among employees in Linz is now "naturally down".
The cover letter also reads: “We are currently still at an early stage of the talks, but it was important for us to inform you in advance about the start of the talks. As soon as there are concrete negotiation results, we will keep you up to date on this as soon as possible. "