Austrain Airlines’ ‘Focus East’ strategy has two main pillars: market leadership in Central and Eastern Europe and expansion to the Middle East.
The Group which flies to Dubai daily is the undisputed market leader in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and has consistently expanded its network via secondary destinations, making itself a ‘first mover’ in penetrating new markets at an early stage.
As a result, it became the first Western European carrier to serve one-third of its CEE destinations.
Due to its favourable geographical location in Vienna, Austrian Airlines is the only carrier to offer a high-quality long-haul product on medium-haul flights using the refurbished Airbus 320 aircraft with the Premium Service concept.
The company remained focussed on three marketing objectives in 2009.
Awareness of the product – with the launch of a new and bigger aircraft, the Boeing 767 to and from Dubai, carrying the exclusive Austrian Premium Service on board, an exclusive package appealing to all the senses with highly improved business-class facilities and services and the launch of the second edition of the Austrian Urlaub (exclusive in the Middle East), the only holidays catalogue for Austrian Airlines.
Competitive pricing – as the market situation demands, Austrian Airlines best fares to selected European destinations are at par or if not, currently, the best in the market.
More value added services to the UAE market in 2009 – to support these positive developments, the company, which flies to Dubai daily, holds a team of professional employees in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Beirut and in February 2009, Austrian Airlines opened a new branch in Al Ain to further extend its market reach. Passengers coming from Al Ain or Abu Dhabi are given complimentary transportation to and from Dubai airport and passengers can now print out their boarding card in the convenience of their own home via the Austrian Airlines web check in.
Austrian Airlines carried almost 2.4 million passengers in the fourth quarter of 2009, or 1.3 per cent fewer passengers than in the same period the previous year. The load factor (passenger load factor) improved by two percentage points to reach 74.6 per cent. The trend in the load factor was particularly strong in Western Europe and on long-haul routes.
In the period from January to December 2009, the number of passengers carried, at around 9.9 million, was 10.2 per cent down on the previous year’s figure. The load factor fell 0.9 percentage points below the figure for the previous year, holding steady at 74 per cent.