• Targeted flight service reductions in the winter season as a consequence of weak demand – gradual ramping up of offering in the summer flight schedule
• Passenger volume down 7.3 percent in April in line with expectations
• New destination: 4x per week to Odessa
In the period January to April 2015, Austrian Airlines continued to proactively reduce its flight service in accordance with its business plan due to the weak demand at this time of the year, and increasingly shifted technical checks to this time span. The airline’s flight offering measured in available seat kilometers (ASK) was cut back by 3.0 percent from the previous year, whereas revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) dropped by 6.6 percent. Passenger volume totaled 2.9 million, comprising a decline of 10.5 percent from the prior-year period, as expected. The passenger load factor was down 2.8 percentage points to 73.3 percent.
In the month of April 2015, Austrian Airlines carried a total of 931,900 passengers. Passenger volume rose from the previous month of March 2015 as a result of the beginning summer flight schedule and the Easter holidays, but still comprised a year-on-year decrease as planned, declining by 7.3 percent compared to April 2014. The flight offering in available seat kilometers was up 6.5 percent, primarily as a consequence of flight service to Newark which had not yet been part of the flight schedule in April 2014. Revenue passenger kilometers were down 2.7 percent. Capacity utilization (passenger load factor) was 73.7 percent on average, a drop of 7.0 percentage points from the previous year.
Europe
In the fourth-month period January to April 2015, Austrian Airlines cut back on its flight offering by 10.6 percent, mainly due to the crises in Russia and the Ukraine. On balance, about 2.4 million passengers flew on European flights of Austrian Airlines. This corresponds to a decrease of 11.7 percent in a year-on-year comparison, in line with expectations. Capacity utilization fell by 2.9 percentage points to 70.1 percent. In the month of April 2015 alone, Austrian Airlines carried about 781,800 passengers in Europe, comprising a drop of 8.2 percent from the prior-year level, as expected. On balance, capacity utilization on European flights was down 5.5 percentage points to 73.5 percent in April 2015. Available seat kilometers decreased by 1.0 percent.
Intercontinental
In the period January to April 2015, approximately 488,500 passengers flew on the long-haul flights offered by Austrian Airlines, a drop of 3.8 percent from the previous year. The offering measured in available seat kilometers rose by 3.8 percent as a consequence of flight service to Newark which had not yet been offered in the prior-year period. Revenue passenger kilometers fell by 0.4 percentage points. The passenger load factor was down 3.2 percentage points to 75.8 percent. In April 2015, Austrian Airlines carried about 150,100 passengers on its intercontinental flights, comprising a decline of 2.2 percent from the prior-year level. Available seat kilometers rose by 13.1 percent, whereas revenue passenger kilometers were up by 1.7 percent. The passenger load factor amounted to 73.9 percent, down 8.3 percentage points from the previous year.
