Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) management has called off merger talks with its subsidiary, Tyrolean Airways (Innsbruck), in addition to scrubbing its Fokker 70 and Fokker 100 replacement plans after its flight deck and cabin crews returned to using the original collective wage agreement as a basis for their wage negotiations.
According to the carrier, during a general staff meeting convened by the flight and cabin crews' Works Council to discuss the airline's proposal, Karl Minhard, the Chairman of the union, allegedly called for a return to the original agreement as a point of reference for the talks.
It was on this basis, the Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) subsidiary said, that it was postponing its plans to invest EUR1billion (USD1.35billion) in replacing its Fokker Aircraft (Woensdrecht) fleet, in addition to expanding its long haul routes, given that the old collective wage agreement does not provide for what it termed "a sound basis" for large-scale investments.
“The past cannot be the answer to an economically challenging future. The old collective wage agreement would lead us straight into an economic dead end,” Klaus Froese, the Managing Director of Tyrolean Airways, said.
Among other mitigating factors in management's decision to call off the talks was the union's threat to embark on industrial action and the subsequent cancellation of 34 flights.
“We will now deliberate which options we have. Naturally my door remains open for serious negotiations about an economically viable Austrian Airlines,” Froese said.
It is to be recalled that following the collapse of similar wage talks in 2012, all of Austrian's flight operations and 2'100 staff were transferred to less lucrative contracts at Tyrolean Airways.
