Austrian Airlines Group’s Focus East strategy has helped secure a strong position in 8 out of 10 boom regions for world aviation.Austrian Chief Executive Officer Vagn Soerensen explains the marketing success of the company’s Focus East expansion as follows: ‘By far the most effective means of achieving expansion is to function within growth regions, which is why we now enjoy a particularly strong presence in those parts of the world in which the local and regional economies are booming. Our Focus East strategy has put us in strong positions in no less than eight of the ten fastest-growing aviation markets in the world today (Poland, China, Czech Republic, Turkey, Romania, Malaysia, India and the United Arab Emirates). According to IATA figures, these markets will see passenger growth ranging between 7.5 and 11% until 2009. With 164 connecting flights into and out of these dynamic economic regions every week, Austrian already offers a highly effective programme of services.’

The ‘blueprint’ for Austrian’s present-day traffic system provides for a far-reaching network of 130 destinations spread across 66 countries on 5 continents, and market share of 57% at its Vienna hub. 60% of all Austrian Airlines Group passengers are transfer passengers; already now, 75% of Austrian traffic revenue is generated outside Austria itself.

Austrian Chief Commercial Officer Dr. Josef E. Burger describes his network architecture more precisely: ‘Since 2002 we have opened up 22 new scheduled destinations, 7 of which have been in the long-haul segment. The Austrian traffic system has expanded by 300 scheduled connecting flights a week in the same period - 40 of which are long-haul. The historic passenger record of 10.1 million passengers carried in 2005 means the Group has been able to increase its passenger volume by 1.2 million people - 14.6% - since 2002. Our growth drivers here have clearly been the Focus East markets: in the past three years we have seen a 34% increase in passenger growth in Eastern Europe, 56% in the Middle East and 46% in Asia/Australia. We already generate passenger volume of 3.5 million people travelling into and out of these markets - a tendency which is set to grow further.’
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