Austrian Airlines still sees potential to grow its operations in eastern Europe despite declines in its key markets – Russia and Ukraine – and the rise of low-cost carriers.
Speaking to Flightglobal at the Routes Europe conference in Krakow on 25 April, the Lufthansa Group carrier's continental network development chief Sven Stelzer suggested that budget airlines such as Wizz Air and Ryanair had stimulated additional demand with their low fares. Austrian, he says, is still able to generate sufficient traffic with its scheduling and opportunities to connect flights in Vienna.
Indeed, the low-costs are "not necessarily competitors", in Stelzer's view. "There are still growth markets" in eastern Europe and the region has "important source markets for long-haul [routes] especially to North America", he asserts.
Vienna-based Austrian serves approximately 40 destinations in eastern Europe, notes Stelzer.
Capacity to Russia and Ukraine has been sharply reduced as a result of the political conflict between the two countries and Western sanctions against Russia.
Moscow was in the past served thrice daily by Austrian, but the airline has almost halved its schedule to the Russian capital and now operates 11 flights per week, says Stelzer.
Certain routes have been suspended, such as flights to Russian city Rostov and Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.
However, other services have been increased. Frequencies to Lviv and Odessa are being raised to daily.
Stelzer argues that there are strong differences in traffic demand across the region and that "eastern Europe does not automatically mean eastern Europe".
He adds: "Even Ukraine is not the same across that country."
Source: Cirium Dashboard
