20. 01. 12. - 16:18

FW considers slashing charges

Flughafen Wien AG (FW) bosses have said they are willing to discuss discounts as Austrian Airlines (AUA) plans to freeze wages due to soaring personnel costs.

AUA chief Jaan Albrecht said last week that his team had created a new kind of contract for staff to help lower the airline’s expenses. Albrecht explained the plan was to abstain from upping salaries if the overall price of goods and services on offer in Austria leapt. AUA employees’ representatives made clear they would not accept a further savings package. They pointed out that several cutbacks were introduced since Lufthansa grabbed AUA in September 2009.

Albrecht emphasised that AUA’s personnel costs were as high as in 2009 when the airline employed 1,500 more people than today. He appealed to FW to slash fees the company heaved on airlines to do business at Vienna International Airport (VIA or VIE), Austria’s biggest aerodrome. Julian Jäger – who cooperates with Günther Ofner in heading FW, the enterprise in charge of VIA – announced yesterday (Thurs) he was ready to talk about a decrease of charges.

Jäger – who previously headed Malta International Airport (MLA) – stressed that FW would lower fees for all of the 80 airlines which operated at VIA instead of lowering just the charges AUA must transfer. AUA officials stressed the important economic role of the airline for Austria, Vienna and the airport. Annual business figures presented by FW yesterday show that 50 per cent of flights at VIA were AUA services, down by one per cent compared to 2010. Budget carrier FlyNiki is the second-busiest airline at 11.6 per cent.

The AUA works council decided to hold a summit today to discuss how to react to the board’s planned austerity measures. Unionists said they had no plans to go on strike but made clear that further income cutbacks and measures like longer working hours without salary increases were unacceptable. The struggling airline’s boss argued that AUA must react to global developments. "The aviation industry is going through changes. AUA must evolve too," Albrecht said.

A labour unionist reacted by declaring that the aviation enterprise’s company "has nothing more to give". Another representative of AUA’s workforce warned that restoring a firm’s finances by reducing employees’ wages "is an endeavour certain to fail". The airline’s works council said it agreed with Albrecht that FW should introduce a reduction of charges. The businessman underlined last week that his airline had to spend 27 per cent of its earnings in taxes and fees.

AUA, which has 5,800 full-time staff, sustained an operative loss of nearly 65 million Euros in both 2010 and 2011. The company recorded 10.5 million passengers in the first 11 months of last year, up by 2.9 per cent compared to the first 11 months of the previous year.

More people than ever used the services of airlines operating at VIA last year when 21.11 million passengers were registered. The figure surpassed the previous annual record of 2010 by 7.2 per cent, Jäger said yesterday. Connections to destinations in the Eastern Europe (EE) region were especially popular in 2011. Such flights recorded 14.9 per cent more passengers than in 2010.