The Irish low-cost airline is expanding with three new routes from Vienna in winter. And Ryanair is dropping plans to phase out the Airbus A320 from its subsidiary Lauda.
The Ryanair group actually wanted to gradually get rid of an inheritance from Niki Lauda. From the 2021/22 winter season, she planned to return the first Airbus A320s to the lessors. As a result, Airbus will disappear completely from the aircraft park in the “next three to four years”, the Irish said a year ago. Also the Daughter Lauda will then switch to a Boeing 737.
Now it looks different once more. The leasing contract for the Airbus A320 from Lauda is to be extended by four years to 2027/28, explained Ryanair Group boss Michael O’Leary on Wednesday (July 13) at a press conference in Vienna. One behaves completely “opportunistically”, so the manager. The cheaper provider comes into play – regardless of whether it is a question of Boeing or Airbus jets. Therefore, the change to Boeing 737 at Lauda is no longer an issue for the time being.
“The biggest winter flight schedule” from Vienna
In Vienna, Ryanair is planning an expansion for the winter. Three new destinations will be included – Copenhagen, Helsinki and Tuzla. In total, the low-cost airline would like to fly to 70 destinations from the Austrian capital next winter. This is “the largest winter flight plan” that has ever been offered in Austria.
Michael O’Leary: Expands in Vienna. Image: aeroTELEGRAPH
After the strong damper caused by the pandemic, the Ryanair Group in the current financial year with a total of 19 aircraft stationed in Vienna carry around six million passengers. Overall, the Irish would like to come to 165 million passengers. Austria is the third strongest market in terms of market share growth.
Fuel price not a problem yet
Even O’Leary cannot say with certainty whether the growth plans will actually work out as planned: “The recovery is fragile,” said the Ryanair boss in Vienna. He sees big question marks in connection with the further development of Covid and the war in Ukraine. The currently high oil prices scare him less – currently around 80 percent of the fuel requirements at Ryanair are secured at 70 dollars per barrel.