The beginning of the year is seeing a rapid traffic growth in air traffic for Austrian Airways and is accelerating faster still.There has been a massive rise in scheduled traffic of 21 percent accompanied by an 18 percent jump in passenger numbers.

Commenting on the extremely satisfying traffic trend developing in January, Austrian Chief Executive Officer Vagn Soerensen said the following:

“Both in comparison with other renowned network airlines and with the growth of our Vienna hub, we have been able to market our increased availability more effectively, winning new market shares as a result. More than ever before, our Focus East programme is proving to be a success model for systematic concentration on growth markets. We are opening up numerous new markets and regions in the East, both on behalf of and in partnership with the Austrian economy, and consequently retain the benefit of the First Mover into those markets.”

The Austrian Airlines Group not only managed to maintain its disproportionately high levels of traffic growth through into 2006, but also reported significant further increases in that growth.

Revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) on scheduled services, an important figure for revenue, have been increased by 21 percent compared to the previous year. Available seat kilometers only expanded by 9.2 percent in the same period, meanwhile.

The January load factor on scheduled services stood 7.2 percentage points above the figure for January last year, reaching 73.3percent. Scheduled traffic reported growth of 18 percent to around 631,000 passengers carried.

The reduction in charter traffic is the result of lower availability due to a partial transfer to scheduled business in the form of integrated long-haul planning.

With an overall increase in passengers of 14.3 percent compared to January 2005, the Austrian Airlines Group also succeeded in posting a strong increase in the off-season month of January, carrying a total of 688,000 passengers on its scheduled and charter services.
——-