Austrian Airlines celebrated their first long-haul flight from Vienna to New York-Newark on Wednesday. After a more than 100-day break, the carrier has now added service to New York, Chicago and Washington back into their flight program.
On Wednesday, Austrian Airlines announced a major milestone on the road to recovery with the launch of their first long-haul flight in over 100 days. From today, the Austrian flag carrier has added service to New York, Chicago and Washington back into their flight program. This morning’s flight departed Vienna at 10:33 AM en-route to New York-Newark where it was expected to land around 1:45 PM local time. The flight designated OS 89 was serviced with a Boeing 767-300ER, registration number OE-LAX. Austrian Airlines reported that approximately one-third of the aircraft was occupied with 64 passengers and that the scheduled return flight is fully booked. The carrier’s flight to Chicago (OS 65) took off prior to the New York flight, which was shortly followed by OS 93 to Washington. Austrian will also resume service to Bangkok in July and all the flights mentioned will be offered three-times weekly. In Wednesday’s announcement, Austrian Airlines Chief Commercial Officer, Andreas Otto said,
“Long-haul routes comprise supreme discipline in Austrian aviation. Therefore, after such a long interruption, we are of course especially pleased to be able to offer intercontinental flights again and thereby get our hub at Vienna Airport up and running again.
Also commenting on today’s resumption of long-haul service, Flughafen Wien AG Board Member, Julian Jäger added,
“Slowly, but surely, aviation is returning. The resumption of long-haul flights by Austrian Airlines is an important impulse for the entire tourism industry. Even though it will take some time to reach pre-crisis levels, Vienna as a location for aviation is taking further steps to overcome the crisis with the new long-haul connections.”
Prior to today’s milestone flights, Austrian’s last long-haul flight landed in Vienna on March 19, 2020. In the interim period, the carrier operated various repatriation flights from including South America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand among other locations. Austrian also operated cargo flights with medical supplies from China and Malaysia, which will be continued in July
Source: Austrian Airlines