Austrian expansion continues with summer schedule

Continuing the successful Focus East network strategy Austrian introduces 3 new destinations in Central & Eastern Europe and 2 in the Middle East. The introduction of Sochi (1 April – host city of 2014 Winter Olympics) and Nizhny Novgorod (2 April) brings to 7 the destinations in Russia and makes Austrian the world’s second largest airline when judged by traffic to Russia. From 21 April Baia Mare will become the 6th city in Austrian’s Romanian network.

Austrian is the leading carrier to Central & Eastern Europe with over 600 flights a week into the region. Important seasonal destinations are incorporated in the summer schedule including Dubrovnik & Split in Croatia, Bourgas on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and Ohrid in Macedonia. Other cities will see significant increases in frequency including: Podgorica; Zagreb; Ljubljana; Kiev; Minsk; Timisoara; Pristina; Bucharest; Sofia; Belgrade; Kosice; Skopje; Odessa; Kharkov and Yerevan.

Continued expansion in the Middle East sees the introduction to the network of Riyadh (19 August) and Jeddah (18 August) whilst services to Erbil will resume (1 April). The summer schedule will also feature increased frequencies to Istanbul, Larnaca, Cairo, Damascus and Tehran. This commitment to the region continues beyond the summer with increased flights to both Ankara and Dubai. Passengers using Austrian flights to the Middle East will be benefit from the new Premium Service concept in Business Class from the summer onwards.

Austrian Airlines CEO Alfred Ötsch made the following statement on the company’s expansion of its route network:

“We are continuing the successful Focus East strategy, which has enabled us to achieve strong passenger growth on short- and medium-haul routes in recent years. As the first European airline, we shall incorporate scheduled flights to Sochi, the city hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics. Other important new destinations that are taken into our route network with direct flights from April are Nizhny Novgorod in Russia and Baia Mare in Romania. In summer, we will incorporate the Saudi Arabian cities of Riyadh and Jeddah. The overall picture is rounded off by extensive frequency increases on 39 existing routes, providing further evidence of our successful new direction.”

Other features of the summer schedule include increased frequencies within the European Union and on long-haul routes including: Venice; Athens; Berlin; Verona, Thessalonica; Toronto; Beijing; New York and Chicago.