The Austrian airline is finally retiring its last Airbus A319ceo, although it will remain in the Lufthansa Group as it will be transferred to Lufthansa CityLiner.
At the outbreak of the coronavirus crisis, Austrian had announced that it would retire the aircraft at the beginning of 2022. The last Airbus A319 in red and white, registration OE-LDE, performed the last service between Tirana (Albania) and Vienna (Austria) on January 1. According to Ch-Aviation, Lufthansa CityLine will operate five A319-100s acquired from the Austrian company and six others transferred from Lufthansa.
It took delivery of its first Airbus A319 in February 2004, bringing its total to seven aircraft.
The company’s fleet now consists of 29 A320ceo, three Airbus A321-100s, and three Airbus A321-200s on short- and medium-haul routes, in addition to 17 Embraer E195s.
See also: Austrian Airlines says goodbye to turboprops
As part of the fleet reduction process to address the crisis, it also sold three Boeing 767-300ERs and its entire fleet of DHC 8-400s. The Boeing 767s were acquired by Monocoque Diversified Interests and resold as a source of spare parts to Kalitta Air.
This brings the long-range fleet to three Boeing 767-300ERs and six Boeing 777-200ERs. The Lufthansa Group has not decided on the replacement of Austrian aircraft, which are on average 22 years old.
