Austrian Airlines Adds Mumbai To Network, Keen On South India

Tourism and Bollywood, Priority To Boost Traffic

Bhisham Mansukhani-Mumbai

Austrian Airlines recently announced direct flights between Vienna and Mumbai, five weekly September onwards and reaffirmed its strategy to boost traffic by concentrating on tourism and Bollywood to bring more Indians to Austria. With daily, direct flights out of Delhi, Austrian Airlines is now keen on further ramping up frequencies with a potential third, South Indian destination.

Announcing direct services out of Mumbai, Austrian Airlines CEO Vagn Soerensen said, "Load factors on Delhi routes have been very encouraging - a perennial 77 per cent. As Mumbai accounts for 40 per cent of all international air traffic into Mumbai, the direct flights into the financial capital were always only a matter of time." Austrian Airlines has set itself the target of flying more than 2,60,000 passengers next year, 1,50,000 from Delhi and 1,10,000 from Mumbai.

"We expect about 1,45,000 Indians from Delhi to fly to Vienna this year on Austrian, amounting to a load factor of 77 per cent and we expect to carry 30,000 passengers on our newly implemented Mumbai-Vienna service with a load factor of up to 70 per cent. Next year, we expect the passenger numbers for Delhi to increase to 150,000 and for Mumbai, 1,10,000," said the airline's chief commercial officer Josef E Burger.

Austrian Airlines is also collaborating with its tourism board and trade as it sees its growth directly proportionate to that of tourism. "Tourism both inbound and outbound is an area of focus, with a concentration on groups. We will promote tourism by bringing film crews to shoot scenes onsite.

In 2004, 39,000 Indians visited Austria. A focus on Bollywood will help increase that figure," revealed Bernhard Baeck, country manager (India). The new route will operate five times a week from Mumbai to Vienna, long range Boeing B767-300 jet providing 36 business and 209 economy class seats per flight.