Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) will consolidate its long-haul fleet around a single type, the B787-9s, with ten aircraft ordered for deliveries between early 2024 and 2028.
The first aircraft is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2024 and will be in service for the Summer 2024 season. By 2028, the airline will replace all three B767-300ERs (which are 23.6 years of age on average) and six B777-200ERs (22.4), simultaneously growing its widebody fleet by one aircraft to ten units.
The airline did not place a new order but will take the aircraft from the backlog of Lufthansa Group, as previously expected. Austrian Airlines confirmed to AeroTELEGRAPH that the batch would comprise five new-build units from the holding's existing order book and five aircraft not taken by Hainan Airlines (HU, Haikou), which are already in service with Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International). The latter will be transferred to Austrian Airlines as Lufthansa takes more new-build widebodies.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows that on top of the five aircraft opportunistically added by Lufthansa in 2021 (with deliveries over the second half of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023), the holding has a firm order for thirty-four B787-9s directly from the manufacturer, with a further seven due from lessors.
Austrian Airlines will become the second operator of the B787 in the Lufthansa Group. Sister carrier Swiss has recently announced that it would launch its widebody fleet renewal with A350-900s, while Brussels Airlines and EW Discover have yet to announce any decisions regarding new-generation widebodies.
