Ex-Grand Prix driver and founder of airline aims to carve a slice of low-cost sector.
Niki Lauda is plotting a return to the airline industry with a plan to enter the European no-frills market next year.
The ex-Grand Prix driver founded Austrian carrier Lauda Air in 1979, but resigned in 2000 when the airline ran into financial problems and he fell out with shareholder Austrian Airlines Group (AUA). A clause in the contract signed between AUA and Lauda when he sold his remaining Lauda Air shares banned him from involvement in the aviation business for two years, but the suspension has now expired.
Earlier this year Lauda sold his 60% share in Italian arm Lauda Air Italia - but will remain on the board as an honorary president until 2008.
Lauda is ready to return to the business, and is carrying out comprehensive studies of other low-cost carriers to mould his own concept. 'I am working intensively on the creation of a cheap airline,' he says, adding: 'The fact that AUA is having internal problems means it's the ideal time for a new cheap airline.'
The Austrian has not revealed whether he is planning to enter a partnership with an existing low-cost airline or to launch a new carrier, but he makes it clear that no-frills airlines are the future of the aviation business.
'Low fares is the absolute future. This trend can't be stopped,' says Lauda. 'This business venture is only interesting for me if I have the best cost structure from the beginning.'
Lauda says the new venture could begin by mid-2004. It is believed that its most likely base will be Vienna or possibly Bratislava airport in Slovakia, 80km (50 miles) from the Austrian capital.
Source: Flight International
