All the news about Israeli tourism
2009-04-21 - Vol 11
Austrian Airlines delays increasing capacity on Tel Aviv route
As a result of falling demand, Austrian Airlines decision to increase capacity by 30 percent on the Tel Aviv to Vienna route has been put on hold. At the end of December the company celebrated 45 years of activity in Israel and had in recent months planned to increase capacity on the route.
Because of the ongoing world economic crisis and falling demand, Austrian Airlines has decided not to upgrade their flights to Tel Aviv from the existing Airbus A321 to the Boeing 767. At a news conference held at the end of December 2008, senior members of the airline in Israel said that the plan to upgrade to the larger Boeing 767 aircraft would increase the capacity on each flight to 235 passengers.
At the current time Austrian Airlines management have decided that the introduction of the Boeing 767 to the route will not take place in May but will instead begin on 5th July and that on the afternoon flight.
Eli Messer, General manager of Austrian Airlines in Israel indicated that the reason that the management of the company had decided to delay the increased capacity was entirely as a result of the global economic crisis. Messer added "At such a time we prefer not to behave pretentiously, nevertheless if there is an improvement in the near future we will reconsider our earlier plan."
Austrian Airlines