The Austrian Airlines Group is continuing to expand its route network in Central and Eastern Europe. From 20 August 2003 onwards the company will operate a new direct connection to Baku, capital of Azerbaijan. Chief Commercial Officer Dr. Josef E. Burger made the following statement on this initiative: “This new development means that Austrian Airlines is the only airline to fly to all three Caucasian republics, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. We offer a total of eight weekly connections to this region, emphatically proving our unrivalled competence in Eastern Europe.”

Flights depart from Vienna for Baku at 20.50 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with return flights from Baku at 04.45 local time on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and arrival back in Vienna at 06.15. This schedule guarantees the best possible connections in Vienna from and to Western Europe, North America and Australia.

With its 8 million inhabitants, Azerbaijan is the largest and richest of the three ex-Soviet Caucasian republics, and is currently undergoing an economic boom. Based on the anticipated exploitation of its oil and natural gas reserves, Azerbaijan is expected to witness economic growth of around 8 % this coming year. The construction of a pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan (Turkey) via Tiflis began recently: numerous international oil and construction companies are already based in Azerbaijan, for which the new connection via Vienna will function as an outstanding transfer hub. Including Baku, the city on the Caspian Sea, the Austrian Airlines Group now provides scheduled flights to a total of 34 destinations in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The Group’s global route network includes 122 destinations in 64 countries across all five continents of the world.
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