Austrian pioneers new routes to Central & Eastern Europe

Commencing during the summer schedule 2008, Austrian will add two new flight destinations in Russia bringing the total to seven Russian cities. Services to Sochi and Nizhniy Novgorod will operate three times a week from April in addition to operations to Rostov, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Karsnodar.

Traffic to Sochi begins on 1 April 2008 and will operate three times a week using the Fokker 70. Sochi is a resort city in Krasnodar Krai, just North of the Southern Russian border. The city extends along the Black Sea coastline with the snow topped peaks of the spectacular Caucasus Mountains behind, a fitting setting for the 22nd Olympic Winter Games that will be hosted here in 2014.

The city is one of the most popular beach and health resorts in Russia and is experiencing a boom in tourism. Once again, Austrian will be the first Western carrier to operate flights into Sochi.

Bringing the airline’s total Central & Eastern European destinations tantalisingly close to the magic ‘50’ is the addition of Nizhnyi Novgorod, an industrial city in the ‘European’ part of Russia and the birthplace of Maksim Gorky and the Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov. The city is also considered to be Russia’s architectural ‘Mecca’, consequently it is of interest to tourists and business travellers. Services will commence 2 April 2008.

Austrian already offers passengers five Russian destinations in the cities of Rostov, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Krasnodar. By incorporating flights to Sochi and Nizhniy Novgorod into its schedule, the Austrian Airlines Group is consolidating its position as the world’s second-largest airline when measured by the number of destinations in Russia. The Austrian Airlines Group is also a top player in frequency terms, as the world’s third-largest carrier.

As Austrian celebrates it’s 50th anniversary on 31 March 2008 it hopes to mark the occasion with a network of 50 cities in Central & Eastern Europe consolidating it’s position as Number 1 carrier to the region.

Making even more attractive connections our first daily departure from Heathrow will move to 06.05 with the start of the summer 2008 schedule, OS 458 currently departs at 06.15 and is just one of the seven available daily services from London to Vienna (five flights daily from LHR, double daily services, Monday to Friday, from LCY).

Austrian Chief Executive Officer Alfred Ötsch made the following statement about the two new destinations: “As part of the highly successful Focus East strategy of the Austrian Airlines Group, we are expanding our Russian route network to seven destinations this year.

“Businesspeople both at home and abroad value our commitment to Russia enormously; the seven destinations we now serve are the attractive centres of population in the country, and all demonstrate a highly dynamic economic growth. In this way, we are once again underlining our leading role as a specialist and pioneer in the east, and the destinations of Sochi and Nizhniy Novgorod also strengthen our transfer traffic.”

The Fokker 70: High passenger comfort due to extra legroom in Business Class

Passengers travelling to Sochi and Nizhniy Novgorod can sit back and relax inflight - last summer, Austrian removed an entire row of seats from all aircraft in its Fokker fleet, increasing the amount of seat legroom enormously.

Passengers travelling Business Class on Fokker 70 aircraft now enjoy a generous 86 cm (34 inches) of legroom, putting the Austrian Airlines Group in a leading position compared to other European carriers. As usual, the middle seat in Business Class also on flights to and from Sochi and Nizhniy Novgorod is kept free for a higher level of passenger comfort.

For more information, visit Austrian.com.