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Ryanair to raise flight ticket prices in Austria

The low-cost airline said it would increase ticket costs for flights to and from Austria.

Ryanair to raise flight ticket prices in Austria
Ryanair is increasing ticket prices in Austria as inflation rises. (Photo by PASCAL PAVANI / AFP)

Ryanair, which also owns popular Austrian carrier Lauda Europe, will raise its prices – but moderately – due to inflation, the company said.

Ryanair Austria head Andreas Gruber added that the days of flying almost for free are over: “There will be no more 10-euro tickets”, he told Austrian press.

The average price for a Ryanair flight will rise from €40 to €50 in the future. Still, the Irish airline expects the number of passengers to grow in the coming months as people start looking for cheaper transportation with the rising cost of living.

Just as with grocery shopping, with people increasingly buying at discount stores, so will travellers start paying more attention to the prices of tickets, Gruber expects. In Vienna, the number of passengers is expected to rise from six million this year to 6.5 million the following year.

READ ALSO: From inflation to Covid: What to expect from Austria’s winter season

Ryanair also starts operating from Klagenfurt in November when it expects an influx of 50,000 to 60,000 passengers. The company said that ticket bookings have been as high as expected, especially with people looking to fly to London-Stansted.

Gruber also sees Ryanair on the rise in competition with Austrian Airlines (AUA). “We offer more destinations on short and medium-haul routes than AUA from Vienna,” said the executive, adding that the market share in Vienna is currently 25 percent.

READ ALSO: EU delays passport scan system and €7 travel fee until 2023

New winter routes to and from Vienna

The airline recently announced eight new routes that would be included in the program of its flights scheduled to and from Vienna, as The Local reported.

The new routes are Bremen (Germany), Manchester (England), Copenhagen (Denmark), Helsinki (Finland), Genoa and Venice (Italy), Tuzla (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Sibiu (Romania).

READ ALSO: Ryanair announces eight new routes from Vienna for winter 2022

Ryanair said it is investing €1.7 billion in its Vienna hub, which means that a total of 17 aircraft will be stationed in Austria’s capital. The airline will operate more than 600 flights a week to and from the capital and will create 600 jobs for the season.

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STRIKES

Austrian Airlines strikes: Are the two sides any closer to a deal?

Austrian Airlines has cancelled 400 flights due to an upcoming scheduled strike as workers negotiate their collective agreements, but how close is a deal and will there be more disruption in the coming weeks?

Austrian Airlines strikes: Are the two sides any closer to a deal?

Austrian Airlines (AUA) announced on Tuesday that it has had to cancel around 400 flights after cabin crew confirmed a strike action during Easter week, as The Local reported. According to the company, around 40,000 passengers affected have already been informed and offered options to cancel their flights or reschedule. 

The strike should last 36 hours, from midnight on Wednesday night until midday on Friday. Yet, while some worker’s representatives say they’d be willing to cancel the strike (though the flights would remain cancelled if that happened) if they came to an agreement with the company, statements by both sides seem to show that they couldn’t be farther from a deal.

And that means more strikes could follow.

READ ALSO: What do Austrians eat during Easter celebrations?

Large salary difference to Lufthansa

One of the issues recently brought up by the trade union, which has demanded salary increases of up to almost 50 percent, is the significant salary gap between workers of Austrian Airlines and those who work for parent company Lufthansa.

Unions claim salaries at Austrian Aitrnes are around 40 percent lower.

“The fact is: from an Austrian perspective, we are in a situation where there are glaring inequalities compared to the Lufthansa Group,” union leader Roman Hebenstreit told Ö1-Morgenjournal on Wednesday.

“From the point of view of the Austrian workforce, we need to be compensated for this,” he added.

But Austrian Airlines CEO Annette Mann went on ORF’s  ZIB2 programme on Tuesday evening and said that the comparison within the Lufthansa group is like comparing “apples with pears”.

She stated that AUA had a profit margin of just over five percent last year, which “had not been high enough”. Additionally, the company has to cover the cost of high investment in its fleet of planes, she said.

Mann criticised the union’s demands, saying that “the higher the pay deal, the more unprofitable the routes become”, which could not happen in the company’s current state. 

Discrepancy of offers

“After a total of 17 rounds of negotiations, the Vida union and the works council still do not want to discuss our offer of an increase in pay of up to 18 percent for flight attendants and pilots, and even up to 28 percent for co-pilots”,  said AUA in a statement on its website.

“With this offer, the company has already moved beyond the economically feasible pain threshold,” the statement reads. “We hope the union and the works council will come to their senses after the strike and reserve the right to revise our offer until then.”

READ ALSO: Everything that changes in Austria in April 2024

Austrian media has reported that the Vida union demands a pay rise starting at 16.94 percent for certain employees (such as senior flight attendants) and up to 49.48 percent for co-pilots. An industry expert consulted by the newspaper said that the average salary increase for foreign airlines was 9.52 percent.

Other demands by union members include more paid leave (42 calendar days from the sixth year of employment) and specifics regarding the hotels the crew stays, such as a requirement that they have a pool and fitness area and be located near the airport for waiting times of up to 12 hours otherwise in the city centre.

Strikes have been averted before

Meanwhile, from the union’s point of view, a collective agreement is still possible by Wednesday shortly before midnight to avert a strike for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. 

According to Hebenstreit, the union is willing to negotiate “right up to the last minute”. The fact that hundreds of flights will still be cancelled even if the strike is averted is “regrettable”, he said.

This is not the first time company and workers have clashed, with strikes looming over the negotiating table. Just last year, also ahead of Easter week, Austrian Airlines workers and company reached an agreement for flight staff that averted a strike, as The Local reported at the time.

Both parties struck a deal on April 3rd, the Monday of Easter week, as reported. 

We’re (much) closer to the promised strike day, but the cancellation of hundreds of flights over the high season and ahead of spring and summer certainly puts more pressure on the company.

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