AUA boss in conversation

“The airport is cramped – we need more gates”

Annette Mann: "The wage dispute is over in our minds, the agreement has not improved our competitiveness."

(Bild: Austrian Airlines / DBS)

Annette Mann, AUA CEO, explains how and why Vienna Airport Schwechat has to fight for more transfer passengers and long-haul flights. In general, flying is becoming more expensive due to environmental regulations.

"Krone": How are Austrian Airlines doing after the wage dispute, very high wage agreements and a very good travel summer?
Annette Mann: The wage dispute is over in our minds, the agreement has not improved our competitiveness, but we have agreed on a three-year peace obligation until the end of 2026. Now we can concentrate on the substantive issues. You say it was a very good summer. The demand was there, but unfortunately it wasn't that good because we had a lot of delays and flight cancellations at the beginning of the summer. There were significantly more thunderstorms than last year. Unfortunately, we again have a bottleneck in air traffic control in many European countries. The Middle East crisis is also really causing us problems this year, as we have good market shares to the Middle East, to and from Tel Aviv, Amman, Erbil and Tehran. Due to the security situation in the Middle East, we repeatedly have to cancel these flights for several weeks, which leaves us with a loss in the double-digit millions. So let's call it mixed, but AUA is not in crisis.