In the course of the consistent restructuring of the Austrian Airlines Group, its brand portfolio - and particularly the Lauda Air charter and holiday flight brand - has been subjected to a detailed evaluation. The results of an investigation and survey pointed in the direction of an umbrella brand strategy based on Austrian, while dialogues with renowned tour operators emphasised the sales potential of the Lauda Air brand. As a result, the Lauda Air brand is now to be brought closer to the Austrian umbrella brand. The charter and holiday flight sector will in future be using the slogan ‘Lauda Air - the AUSTRIAN way to holidays’. Potential synergies such as harmonisation of Lauda’s advertising presence with Austrian and unified design of consumer and other on-board items will be more strongly emphasised in future than has been the case in the past.

Customer surveys carried out recently by polling institute IMAS indicated that the Austrian brand has an extremely high level of recognition compared to numerous competitor carriers, as well as achieving strong preference in the charter and holiday flight market segment. Additional expert interviews with a wide range of Austrian tour operators, which were carried out subsequently by the market research institute Karmasin, confirmed that the Lauda Air brand continues to enjoy a very positive reputation.

Austrian Chief Executive Officer Alfred ?-tsch made the following statement on the decision to bring the brands closer together: ‘When we evaluated a multi-brand versus an umbrella brand strategy, we compared the investment requirement in brand experiences to the reduction in complexity, and the market coverage provided by several different brands to the strength of a single, umbrella brand. The decision to bring the Lauda Air brand closer to Austrian comes as a logical consequence, something confirmed by the results of our studies. Since we value feedback from our clients in the tour operator segment highly, we decided to continue using the brand Lauda Air for the charter and holiday flight business, while extracting the maximum synergies. Our tried-and-tested holiday flight team, led by Thomas Suritsch, will also continue to actively engage in the charter and holiday flight business in future and present itself as a reliable partner.’

Thomas Suritsch, Managing Director of Lauda Air said the following about the brand being brought closer to Austrian: ‘Lauda Air is a multiple award-winning, well-established brand in charter and holiday flights. The fact that the brands within the Group are being brought closer together is positive, and the move will provide continuity and give us the strength to continue growing. Due to the independence of the segment, our cooperation with tour operators can be covered perfectly, while Group synergies are simultaneously exploited to the full.’
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