The fact that Germany has declared the Austrian federal state to be a risk area, among other things, has led to massive cuts in Austria-Germany traffic. Austrian Airlines reduced the frequencies on almost all routes that lead to the neighboring country and the sister company Eurowings is even suspending all routes from Vienna until the beginning of December 2020, with the exception of Hamburg and Düsseldorf.

Only flight offers from Vienna-Schwechat are currently affected. In some federal states, increases have even been announced. Since the German travel warning and the announcement, which will not come into force tomorrow, but only on November 8, 2020, that travelers from risk areas have to be quarantined even with a negative PCR test, things have been really bad at the capital's airport. The occupancy of the airlines Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Eurowings, Wizzair and Ryanair / Lauda operating in Vienna-Germany traffic can only be described with the word “catastrophic”. Aviation Direct was able to determine on numerous AUA flights on site that the 76-seat DHC Dash 8-400 aircraft were not even half full. Sometimes there were even just over a dozen travelers on board, and the observations were made on numerous flights by Aviation.Direct employees. It's not going any better with the competition, but they are in a tricky position, because the machines are much larger and that is not an advantage at all when there is little demand. Eurowings has meanwhile pulled the emergency brake and suspends all routes from Vienna, with the exception of Hamburg and Düsseldorf, until the beginning of December 2020. The destinations affected include Cologne / Bonn, Hanover and Stuttgart, which enjoyed brisk demand before the corona pandemic and were served several times a day by Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft. In the meantime, Austrian Airlines cut shorts, but occasionally also rebooks the Vienna-Graz-Stuttgart route on the Stuttgart route. Most of the time, the DHC Dash 8-400 is no longer used twice a day, but a maximum of once a day. Nuremberg is served as a triangle via Leipzig. The other Germany routes from Vienna were cut due to demand.

The competition from the low-cost segment also thinned out its Germany targets very strongly due to the extremely weak demand. Ryanair serves the German cities of Dortmund and Cologne / Bonn from Vienna. The destinations of Münster / Osnabrück and Stuttgart previously offered by Lauda were never resumed after the lockdown phase. Dortmund is currently offered a maximum of three times a week, although it is not to be expected that the carrier will fly daily again from November - as can currently be booked on the homepage. This already weak route is also flown by competitor Wizzair. This also cut the number of weekly Dortmund flights very sharply and initially flies a maximum of twice a week. In mid-November they want to increase again, but Germany wants to implement tough quarantine regulations by November 8, 2020, which could put a further damper on demand. 

Wizzair also only flies to Cologne / Bonn twice a week. There was tough competition on this route with Austrian Airlines, Ryanair and Eurowings. The last-mentioned airline has already withdrawn for the time being. Ryanair offers two to three Vienna-Cologne flights per week and here, too, the bookable increase to daily from November 2020 seems rather unrealistic. It should also be noted that Ryanair and Wizzair are fighting a tough price war in the single-digit euro range on this route, which seems a little absurd in view of the overall situation.

The destination Bremen is currently on the Wizzair flight schedule from Vienna. Lack of demand led to temporary employment. Whether the announced resumption on November 17, 2020 (twice a week) will actually be implemented, seems to be questionable due to the impending forced quarantine, which has been announced by the Federal Republic for November 2, 8.

Easyjet currently offers Berlin-Tegel as the only route in Germany. This was used up to five times a day “before Corona” and has now been shortened again. A maximum of one flight per day, with no flight at all on individual days of traffic - for example on Saturdays. The route to Berlin-Schönefeld was completely discontinued some time ago. Before the Germans issued a travel warning, Easyjet offered two to a maximum of three Berlin flights a day and used Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft. The suspension of flights to Berlin-Tegel at the end of the month, however, has a completely different reason: The carrier is relocating the entire service to the new Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, which will open at the end of October 2020 with a delay of years. Vienna is one of the first destinations that Easyjet is offering from Berlin-Brandenburg. An important note: With the opening of BER, the orange low-cost airline will use Terminal 1 and no longer Terminal 5 (“old Schönefeld Terminal”).

Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Eurowings jointly operate most of the Vienna-Germany routes. All three group members have had frequency reductions on all routes offered to Germany. While Lufthansa is only active in Munich and Frankfurt traffic, the effects are kept within very narrow limits. At Eurowings, all destinations, with the exception of Düsseldorf and Hamburg, which are served comparatively low-frequency, have been temporarily suspended. Austrian Airlines thinned out the flight plan, carried out triangular flights in the case of Leipzig and Nuremberg and increasingly deployed the smallest aircraft in the fleet, the DHC Dash 8-400. It can also be observed that rebooking on individual routes is also made via Graz, so that the offer there is supported, but the passengers can still get to their destination on the same day. As a rule, this does not result in a delay, you just have to be at Vienna Airport earlier, as there is a feeder flight to Graz.