Lauda Air

Lauda Air
IATA code :	OS (previously NG)
ICAO code :	AUA (previously LDA)
Call sign :	AUSTRIAN (previously LAUDA AIR)
Founding:	1979
Operation stopped:	2013
Merged with:	Austrian Airlines
Seat:	Vienna , Austria
Turnstile :	Vienna Airport
Home airport :	Vienna Airport
Company form:	GesmbH
Alliance :	Star Alliance
Frequent Flyer Program :	Miles & More
Fleet size:	see Austrian Airlines
Aims:	see Austrian Airlines
Lauda Air merged with Austrian Airlines in 2013 . The information in italics relates to the last status before the takeover.

Lauda Air was an Austrian airline based in Vienna and based at Vienna International Airport . From 2004 it was a wholly owned subsidiary of Austrian Airlines .

Most recently, the Lauda Air brand was used as a pure sales brand without its own flight operations. The brand was finally abandoned for the 2013 summer flight schedule and replaced by Austrian myHoliday .

history

Airbus A320 of Lauda Air

1979 to 1995

Lauda Air was on April 4, 1979 by the two-fold at this time Formula 1 - World Champion Niki Lauda founded. 51 percent of the start-up capital of ATS 15 million was provided by Lauda Air GmbH and 49 percent by ITAS Reisebüro GmbH. Niki Lauda acquired Alpair's requirement flight license and began flight operations on May 24, 1979 with two used Fokker F-27 aircraft . Later a French F-27 was leased as the third aircraft. Due to the strong pressure from Austrian Airlines, it was not possible to build up a profitable flight network. Finally two Fokker F-27s were leased to Egypt-Air. At the beginning of 1983 the flight operations with the Fokker F-27 were stopped.

At the end of 1985 regular flight operations were resumed with two BAC 1-11 . A very successful cooperation began with the tour operator ITAS (owner Basile Vavaressos), which made it necessary to increase the transport capacity. In 1986 Lauda Air received the first 737-3Z9 and in 1988 a 737-200. The catering took Do & Co . The first Boeing 767-300ER marked the start of long-haul scheduled flights to Bangkok , Hong Kong and Sydney .

In 1990 Lauda Air received the worldwide liner concession and the company went public. In the autumn of 1990, the Lufthansa subsidiary Condor acquired around 25 percent of the shares. At the end of October 1991 the scheduled flight was extended to Melbourne in Australia.

Lauda Air accident in 1991

→ Main article : Lauda Air flight 004

When Lauda Air flight 004 crashed on May 26, 1991 on the flight from Hong Kong via Bangkok to Vienna, all 223 occupants were killed. In the case of the aircraft involved in the accident, a Boeing 767-300ER , the thrust reverser of the left engine activated itself over Thailand , which led to a loss of control. After persistent investigations, a design flaw in the hydraulic control of the thrust reverser was uncovered.

From 1992

As a result of the cooperation with Lufthansa , scheduled flights to Miami via Munich were started with a Boeing 767-300ER three times a week from December 1992 .

From March 1993, Los Angeles was also served four times a week via Munich. In the same year, Lauda Air Italia , an investment company in Italy, was also founded. This flew from Milan with a Boeing 767-300ER to the Caribbean.

With the Canadair Regional Jets acquired in 1994, Lauda Air took up flights to the European destinations of Barcelona , Madrid , Brussels , Geneva , Manchester and Stockholm . In September 1994 Lufthansa's share in Lauda Air was 39.7 percent.

Merger with Austrian Airlines and Lauda Air

The partial cooperation between Austrian Airlines and Lauda Air began in 1996. Also in 1996, “Nikis Kids Club” was founded for children aged six to twelve.

On March 12, 1997, the strategic partnership between Austrian Airlines, Lauda Air and Lufthansa was announced. Austrian Airlines has a 36 percent stake in Lauda Air, Niki Lauda retained 30 percent and Lufthansa retained a 20 percent stake. On September 24, 1997, Niki Lauda personally took over the first Boeing 777-200ER .

A new Boeing 767-300ER "Frank Sinatra" set out on its maiden flight on August 30, 1999 - a twelve-day trip around the world with stops in Frankfurt, Bangkok, Sydney, Honolulu and Los Angeles was on the program.

On November 21, 2000 Niki Lauda resigned as a board member and in October 2001 Lauda Air became a 99 percent subsidiary of Austrian Airlines.

In 2001 Lauda Air increased the frequency to Australia to five times a week. In 2001 Lauda Air won three awards: the “Business Traveler Award” as “Europe's best airline” , the “Golden Globo” as the best holiday airline in Europe and the title “Airline of the Year” from the business magazine Capital .

In 2002, the financially badly troubled Lauda Air was finally taken over by Austrian Airlines and thus saved from bankruptcy. It is now considered proven that Austrian Airlines only had to take this step due to strong political pressure. Niki Lauda left the company. Some time later he bought the majority stake in the Austrian subsidiary of the bankrupt German airline Aero Lloyd . From this - Aero Lloyd Austria GmbH - he founded his own airline again at the end of November 2003, the NIKI .

In autumn 2004, the flight operations of Lauda Air were integrated into Austrian flight operations by transfer of operations. The marketing and sale of holiday and charter flights took place under the name Lauda Air - with the addition of The Austrian Way to Holidays since 2007 . When carrying out the flights, Lauda Air used Austrian Airlines flight operations and the entire fleet of the Austrian Airlines Group - including aircraft from Austrian Arrows . The aircraft types Boeing 777-200 and Boeing 767-300 were used in long-haul scheduled services operated by Austrian. This is why these planes also had the Austrian design.

The investment company Lauda Air SpA was taken over in September 2005 by Livingston SpA , a subsidiary of the Ventaglio Group.

Development in 2010 and the end of 2017

Since the spring of 2010, the former Boeing 737s operated by Lauda Air have also been used on Austrian Airlines' scheduled routes instead of only being used in charter traffic as before. However, if required and available, they continued to fly to various holiday destinations - like all of the Group's other aircraft.

In 2011, only the Boeing 737-800 with the registration OE-LNK wore the colors of Lauda Air to maintain the Air Operator Certificate . All other former Lauda Air aircraft that were in the fleet of the Austrian Airlines Group at that time bore the Austrian design. At the end of May 2012, Austrian Airlines announced that it would be giving up the Lauda brand and only want to operate under the Austrian name in future .

On August 21, 2012, Austrian Airlines announced that the previous managing director of Lauda Air, Doris Köpf-Szankovich, would leave the company after 31 years with Austrian Airlines, including 12 years with Lauda Air, “on her own request by mutual agreement” as of 31. August 2012 leave.

When the flight plan changed at the end of March 2013, the Lauda Air brand was finally replaced by Austrian myHoliday .

Flight destinations Lauda

As part of the Austrian Airlines fleet, the former Lauda Air aircraft now head for numerous destinations across its entire route network. The aircraft of the types Boeing 767-300ER and Boeing 777-200ER that were taken over are even used on all long-haul flights of Austrian Airlines after their own Airbus A330 and A340 were decommissioned in the course of the Lauda takeover. Until March 2013, flights to holiday destinations mainly around the Mediterranean were offered under the Lauda Air sales brand.

fleet

A Lauda Air Boeing 737-800

Fleet at the end of operations

As a pure sales brand within the Austrian Airlines Group, Lauda Air no longer had its own flight operations.

Previously deployed aircraft

The following aircraft types were in service with Lauda Air in previous years:

• 02 Fokker F-27 (1979–1984)
• 02 BAC 1-11 (1985-1986)
• 17 Boeing 737s (1985-2008, 12 went to Austrian Airlines as part of the merger)
• 11 Boeing 767-300ERs (1989-2007, 6 went to Austrian Airlines as part of the merger)
• 03 Boeing 777-200ER (1997-2005, went to Austrian Airlines as part of the merger)
• 12 Bombardier CRJ100LR (1994-2004)

Trivia

• Niki Lauda also flew the aircraft in his fleet himself.

See also

• Niki Luftfahrt (also a former airline founded by Niki Lauda)
• Laudamotion (an airline taken over by Niki Lauda in 2016 and renamed Laudamotion)
• Former Airlines List (Europe)

Web links

Commons : Lauda Air  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Lauda Air on Planespotters.net
• Lauda Air website ( memento of March 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (archive)
• Austrian MyHoliday website
• Website of the Austrian Airlines Group

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Austrian wants to bring more private travelers on board with "myHoliday". AUA press release, January 2013. Retrieved on January 10, 2013
2. ↑ ^{a b} diepresse.com - AUA holiday brand “myHoliday” replaces Lauda Air January 10, 2013
3. ↑ http://www.austrianwings.info/2012/05/aua-gibt-marke-lauda-air-auf/ , May 30, 2012
4. ↑ Angelika Zierhut takes over the management of the leisure competence team. (No longer available online.) Austrian Airlines , August 21, 2012, formerly in the original ; Retrieved on August 21, 2012 (press release).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
5. ↑ Database on www.planespotters.net (contains only current / common aircraft types)
6. ↑ http://www.motorsport-magazin.com/formel1/news-24285-historisches-niki-lauda-geschichte-eines-oesterreichers.html