Following an absence of 19 years, Austrian Airlines has returned to Cape Town with twice weekly seasonal flights to/from Vienna between the end of October and the end of March. 

The inaugural flight from Vienna touched down at Cape Town International Airport on October 28, showcasing the airline’s newest B777 named “Sibanye” (we are one) by the children of Cape Town’s iThemba school. It also sported a special new livery and new onboard products. These included a “Chef on Board” Business Class service; a new Premium Economy Class featuring better food, more legroom and bigger entertainment screens; and a “Coffee House Service” offering 10 coffee options in Business Class.

Austrian Airlines’ new CEO, Alexis von Hoensbroech, chose the new Cape Town service to make his first international trip. He said the new service would operate as follows: Flight OS31 departs Vienna on Tuesday and Saturdays at 10h15 and arrives in Cape Town at 22h40. Flight OS32 departs Cape Town on Wednesday and Sundays at 24h20, arriving in Vienna at 10h50.

He said the focus inbound was on leisure travel, the target market being 30 000 Austrians who visited South Africa in 2017, of whom 23 200 visited Cape Town; and these numbers were growing.

Lufthansa GM Southern Africa, André Schulz, said Austrian Airlines’ return marked “the next step of the ongoing Lufthansa Group’s success story in Cape Town” and complemented “the multi-brand strategy that the Lufthansa Group is implementing in the South African market”.

He said the Lufthansa Group more than doubled its capacity to Cape Town in the last three years in response to a significant increase in demand. “Cape Town is still booming,” he said. The Group operates year-round Lufthansa flights from Frankfurt; re-introduces increased seasonal Lufthansa frequencies from Munich with its new A350-900 aircraft on December 2; and has increased Edelweiss Air services from Zürich to four times a week. 

André strongly believed the new Vienna route would become equally successful. “We are very confident that we can fill up the flights from the South African market,” he said. He said network planning was done jointly across the Lufthansa Group, therefore there was no risk of the new Austrian services cannibalising existing ones within the group.

He continued that the Lufthansa Group received strong support from Wesgro, which included a Joint Marketing Agreement by which Wesgro supported the airline group’s local marketing activities and hosted a group of 15 Austrian journalists who were covering the launch.