Austrian Airlines has confirmed the closure of its route between Vienna and Dubai due to an over-capacity in the market that has built up over recent years. The airline said new entrants between Austria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and increased frequencies and capacity from competitors had “resulted in fierce price competition”. The last Austrian Airlines flight to Dubai will take place on September 13, 2015 from Vienna, returning from Dubai on September 14, 2015.
With up to 800 seats each way per day available in the market in 2014, Austrian Airlines said this had made the Vienna - Dubai route unsustainable and will mean Lufthansa Group and Star Alliance passengers will need to connect via Frankfurt, Munich or Zurich on the flights of Lufthansa or Swiss International Air Lines to reach Dubai.
Austrian Airlines has been serving Dubai since 1996 but the arrival of Emirates Airline into the Vienna market has meant it has been under pressure for some time. Although the European carrier upped frequencies to a more than daily schedule in the late 2000s and early 2010s, it has recently cut back its activities, matching capacity to seasonal demand.
At the same time Emirates Airline has been growing its own capacity between Dubai and Vienna, supported by the onward passenger flows the route provides via Dubai International Airport and its network into Africa, Asia and across the Gulf and Middle East regions. The UAE carrier introduced a second rotation on Dubai – Vienna in summer 2011 and now offers two daily services, both flown using Boeing 777-300ERs.
Austrian Airlines has also faced indirect competition from Niki, which introduced a daily link between Vienna and Abu Dhabi from November 2014. Through its affiliation with German carrier airberlin and the latter’s equity partnership with Etihad Airways, this link is also able to offer significant onward connections via Abu Dhabi International Airport through the growing network of the UAE’s national carrier.
“Unfortunately, the Vienna-Dubai route has become unsustainable for us. The capacities which will become available will be deployed for attractive, new destinations, such as Miami, Mauritius and Colombo in Sri Lanka starting in October“, said Andreas Otto, chief commercial officer, Austrian Airlines.
The airline’s realigned long-haul network strategy will see it introduce the three new routes from October this year as it seeks to enhance aircraft utilisation during the quieter winter season. A five times weekly link to Miami commences from October 16, 2015, while a weekly flights to Colombo and twice weekly offering to Mauritius will commence from October 27, 2015 and October 29, 2015, respectively.
In recent years destinations in the Indian Ocean have seen market growth for Austrian passengers and the carrier’s existing flights to the Maldives have been extremely popular, showing the high potential in the Austrian long-haul tourism segment, according to the carrier.
Our analysis of Sabre Airport Data Intelligence demand and capacity statistics highlights the performance of both Emirates Airline and Austrian Airlines on the Vienna – Dubai sector over the past two years.
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