Stockholders Approve Austrian Airlines Sale

By Don Nadeau, on May 15, 2009, in Airfares, Travel

Subject to final government approvals, Lufthansa Airlines becomes the new owner of Austrian Airlines.

Austrian has been a feisty little airline that served places other airlines did not wish to go–in some cases perhaps feared to go–such as the Kurd area of northern Iraq.

We’re sorry to see airlines like Austrian lose their independence, but its competitive position was too very difficult.

An airline like KLM can thrive in a small country like the Netherlands by booking connections, but Austrian’s Vienna hub involved too much backtracking to countries in the western portion of Europe for this strategy to be successful.