International Airlines Group is seeking to gain a foothold on Austrian soil by using LEVEL, its low-cost weapon on transatlantic routes, to enter the crowded European short-haul leisure market.
Spanish low-cost airline Vueling is set to increase its presence in Austria, Germany and Switzerland after its parent company International Airlines Group agreed to buy the assets of Niki, the insolvent former Air Berlin subsidiary.
Austrian low cost carrier Niki has ceased flying after Germany’s flag carrier Lufthansa dropped its offer to buy the airline from its insolvent parent Air Berlin.
Routesonline analyses the world’s fastest-growing major airlines by available capacity during the third quarter of 2017 and reveals the carriers that have added the largest volume of seats.
Niki said at the time the flights were announced that it believed there would be sufficient demand for the short flights, which despite a 25 minute block time were estimated to be just ten minutes in length. The majority of this demand would have been to feed its wider network from Vienna International Airport, according to the carrier.
The Austrian low-cost carrier is to launch flights from Bratislava to Brussels and Palma in summer 2015 and to facilitate its new services will operate one of the shortest international flights in the world between its base in Vienna and the Slovakian capital.
The oneworld alliance member will launch a daily service between Stuttgart and Abu Dhabi from December 1, 2014 using an Airbus A320 configured with 12 seats in Business Class and 132 in Economy Class. The service, which remains subject to government and regulatory approvals will be airberlin’s sole medium-haul link from Stuttgart, a market it currently mainly links to Mediterranean leisure destinations.
