The Lauda Air story

Lauda Air, the second airline after Austrian Airlines itself to establish a presence in Vienna, had a history of both competition and cooperation with it.

The son of a paper mill owner, Andreas Nikolaus “Niki” Lauda, ​​who forged a very different path from his father when he won the first of three Formula One racing world championships at age 26, harnessed his fame and invested his fortune in an airline that bore his name, Lauda Air Luftfahrt AG.

By acquiring Alpair Vienna’s charter license for ATS 5 million in April 1979, he started charter and air taxi service in cooperation with Austrian Airlines with two Fokker F.27 Friendships.

However, it quickly became apparent that it could not coexist with incumbent Austrian in such a small domestic market, and the F.27s were consequently leased to Egyptair.

Partnering with Greek financier Basile Varvaressos, owner of the ITAS travel agency, six years later he leased two BAC-111-500s, a British twin-engine not unlike the SE.210 Caravelle and Douglas DC-9 in size, range , and design, of Tarom Romanian Airlines, increasing its fleet capacity to 208 seats in the process and operating them on charter and inclusive travel (IT) services to Greece and other European destinations.

However, demand became so high that it soon exceeded capacity and a larger 737-200, this time purchased from Transavia Holland, replaced one of the BAC-111s. Still later, both types were replaced by two larger-capacity 737-300s, which operated on an ever-growing network of charter routes.

In May 1986, Lauda Air applied to the Austrian Ministry of Transport for a license to operate a scheduled international service for the first time. Approved in November of the following year, it marked the end of Austrian Airlines’ long-standing monopoly and a later obtained 235-passenger Boeing 767-300ER, with business and economy class cabins, facilitated long-haul intercontinental flights. The first, which took place on May 7, 1988, consisted of a single weekly frequency from Vienna to Hong Kong via Bangkok. Later it was supplemented by a Vienna-Bangkok-Sydney sector.

Inextricably linked to the management of the airline that bore his name and frequently occupying the left seat of his aircraft like the pilot he was, he sought to differentiate it and thus attract passengers with quality, offering “Amadeus”, instead of simply “business”. . ,” class; catering their flights with the kitchen of the esteemed DO & CO restaurant in central Vienna; presenting triangular-shaped porcelain plates during their in-flight service; and leading it all off with the slogan, “Service is our success “. Was.

But his signature style expressed itself in several other ways, including high expectations from his employees, uniforms that included red baseball caps and blue jeans that he wore himself, a mandatory retirement age of 38 flight attendants, and planes named after movie stars, singers, and artists such as Bob Marley, John Lennon, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Elvis Preseley, Janis Joplin, Greta Garbo, Gregory Peck, Pablo Picasso, and Ernest Hemingway. One, reflecting his own passion, naturally bore the designation “Enzo Ferrari”.

Flamboyant, charismatic and a racing hero who had also won 26 Grand Prix championships, he was perhaps the Austrian equivalent of Richard Branson.

Satisfying the need for lower fares, long-haul, leisure-oriented travel, Lauda Air grew rapidly. In 1985, for example, it carried 95,768 passengers and flew 2,522 flight hours with 67 employees, while in the first ten months of 1987 it carried 236,730 passengers and flew 5,364 flight hours with 169 employees, an increase in passengers of 147 percent.

By 1990, its fleet consisted of five aircraft, three 146-passenger 737-300s and two 235-passenger 767-300ERs, all operated on charter services to Europe, Africa, and the Middle and Far East. Scheduled routes remained to Vienna, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Sydney.

Subsequently, it obtained its license for European scheduled flights on August 23, 1990, a right previously held only by the Austrian flag carrier, Lauda Air inaugurated service between Vienna and London-Gatwick with five weekly 737-300 frequencies. But the growth attracted more than passengers. It also attracted other airlines.

Because Lufthansa saw its growing presence in the Austrian market and its access to Eastern European routes as potentially lucrative assets, it announced a marketing cooperation with Lauda Air in July 1992 (which was initially envisioned as a offensive move against the abortive Austrian Airlines, KLM, SAS and Swissair Alcazar Alliance), sealing the deal the following January with a 26.5 percent capital increase, through their charter company Condor, shortly after the two airlines inaugurated a four-week 767 service -300ER to Los Angeles. “Lufthansa partner”, announcing the deal, appeared on Lauda’s plane.

No longer just a shadow of Austrian Airlines, the fledgling Austrian airline was now aligned with a company much larger than itself and its initial fleet of dual jets quickly quadrupled, now encompassing four narrow-body 737s and four narrow-body 767s. width, operating between Munich, Miami and Los Angeles with Condor equipment.

Painfully aware of competition from Austrian Airlines on scheduled inter-European routes, Lauda circumvented what would have resulted in the 737’s low load factor by ordering six 50-passenger Canadair CRJ-100 Regional Jets in October 1993 to operate them.

Deployed in Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Brussels, Geneva, Manchester and Stockholm, they marked the start of daylight saving time, which came into effect on March 27, 1994. Singapore, which replaced Bangkok in November of that year, served as its new “bridge” between Vienna and Sydney/Melbourne, and the weekly 767 service doubled. By the fall, it was serving 11 scheduled and 42 charter destinations.

On March 26 of the following year, Lauda Air established a second European hub, Milan-Malpensa, in cooperation with Lufthansa, which now held a 39.7 percent stake in the fledgling airline, basing three of its six CRJ-100s there. and operating them. to Barcelona, ​​Brussels, Dublin, Manchester, Paris and Vienna. Canadair Regional Jets, along with a growing number of 737s, became the backbone of its European fleet.

His stats were nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it carried 1.5 million passengers in 1995, a significant percentage of whom provided business-class performance, and employed 1,200 the following year.

However, it soon became apparent that pending European deregulation would probably not tolerate airlines with dozens of aircraft unless they served very small and specific niche markets. Lauda Air had failed to survive against competition from Austrian Airlines once before. Since both operated medium- and long-range twin-engine aircraft from bases in Vienna and offered considerable quality passenger service, cooperation between the two became inevitable.

Not surprisingly, it had already been partially consumed in June 1996, when Austrian Airlines and Lauda Air operated single-aircraft and dual-code flights to Nice, Milan and Rome with the Regional Jet for the first time.

However, on March 12, 1997, this was expanded when the tricarrier airline group Austrian Airlines was formed, consisting of Austrian Airlines itself, Lauda Air and Tyrolean Airways, each operating within their own niche, based on their experience. , strengths and types of aircraft. The former, for example, remained the flag carrier in the scheduled medium- and long-range sectors, while Tyrolean served domestic and regional markets with turboprop and pure jet aircraft. Lauda Air, while initially maintaining its scheduled Asian and Australian flights, now focuses primarily on leisure-oriented charter destinations.

However, on September 24 of that year it received its second type of wide-body aircraft, the 777-200, which it inaugurated in service on the Vienna-Singapore-Sydney-Melbourne route the following month, replacing the venerable 767.

Two years later, the three airlines of the Austrian Airlines Group announced their intention to join Star Alliance as a collective whole and this became effective on March 26, 2000, at which time Niki Lauda resigned as CEO.

As the lower cost arm within the group of three airlines, Lauda provided medium and long-haul scheduled and charter services on leisure-oriented routes with a fleet of 22 aircraft of four types, while maintaining its own identity.

But in 2004, the first steps towards integration with the Austrian Airlines brand were taken with the ratification of a joint Austrian-Lauda Air cabin crew contract, and the OE-LAE aircraft became the first of four 767-300s. to be repainted in Austrian Airlines livery. it features a new interior color scheme and a 24-seat economy class and 230-seat economy class configuration. Lauda Air itself returned to being a single-class high-density charter airline within the group, operating a narrow-body fleet of Boeing 737s and Airbus A-320s.

Throughout its history, it had operated five basic types of pure jet aircraft, including 12 CRJ-100s, which were eventually operated or sold to Austrian Arrows, Tyrolean Airways, Lufthansa CityLine, and Air Littoral. It also flew almost all versions of the Boeing 737, including the only 737-200 leased from Transavia Holland at the start of its rise, three 737-300s, three 737-400s, two 737-600s, two 737-700s, and seven 737-800s. , often operating certain frequencies to destinations such as London-Heathrow alongside Austrian Airlines A-320-200 or A-321-100/200 at other times. He also flew two of the A-320s.

Of his exclusively Boeing widebody aircraft, he operated as many as 11 767-300ERs at one time or another, which had registrations OE-LAE, -LAS, -LAT, -LAU, -LAV, -LAW, -LAX, -LAY and – LAZ. Two also sported French registrations. Aircraft OE-LAV was involved in the unexplained thrust reverser deployment accident over Thailand in 1991, which resulted in the loss of all 213 passengers and ten crew members on board.

Three 777-200ER registered as OE-LPA, -LPB and -LPC were also operated. These, along with six 767s, were eventually flown by parent Austrian Airlines in their own colors and replaced its fleet of long-range Airbus A-330s and A-340s.

However, completely folded to Austria, Lauda Air ceased to exist on July 1, 2012.

Although Niki Lauda himself seemed to have disappeared from the airline scene with his namesake airline, his hiatus was brief. Forming another low- and mid-range inter-European airline, Fly Niki, it operated seven 112-seat Embraer E-190s, three 150-seat Airbus A-319s (in the colors of Air Berlin, of which it became a subsidiary) and nine 180-seat Airbus A-320-200, which carried five million passengers that year and became Vienna’s second-largest operator, once again providing competition and downward pressure for Austrian Airlines.

All things, in fact, begin anew.