Vienna has become the fastest-growing market in Europe for Middle East visitors, growing in double digits in the last four years to more than 30,000 tourists a year.
Emirates operated a one-off A380 service to Vienna last month, celebrating 10 years of commitment to Austria. The Emirates’ double decker, which carries over 500 passengers, made history when it became the first-ever scheduled A380 service to Vienna International Airport. On May 26, the A380 service replaced EK 125 and EK 8126. At present, Emirates’ 13 weekly frequencies support over 5,000 full-time jobs in Austria, generating economic activity worth over €104 million ($140 million) a year. The Austrian Airlines Group carried more than one million passengers in the month of April 2014 – a rise of 8.2 per cent year on year. This increase can be mainly attributed to the strong growth of passenger volume on flights to North America. Capacity was increased by 10.8 percent. Revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) were up by 16.9 percent. As a result, capacity utilisation (passenger load factor) improved by 4.2 percentage points from the previous year to 80.7 percent.All economy-class passengers aboard Austrian Airlines can fly with two pieces of free check-in baggage of 23kg each. This is applicable on both ways to tickets bought to any destination in Austria from the UAE until June 30, 2014. Lufthansa German Airlines clinched the ‘Best European Airline serving the Middle East’ title during the gala ceremony of the Business Traveller Middle East Awards 2014 on the eve of the Arabian Travel Market 2014 in Dubai. The magazine holds its prestigious awards based on independent polls from readers in the Middle East.The largest European airline group gave a positive outlook on the 2014-15 travel season for its business in the Middle East at this year’s Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. In 2013, more than 1.7 million guests, for the first time, have been welcomed onboard the group members Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines on the route network to and from the Middle East. This reflects a growth of more than 5 per cent compared to the previous year. All in all the Lufthansa Group offered flights to more than 104 million passengers in 2013.