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Work Programme finalised to take Austrian into the profit zone

Direct News Source

13-Mar-2012 Work Programme finalised to take Austrian into the profit zone

• No final agreement achieved with representatives of ground-based staff
• Agreement on principle with Works Council Ground
Lufthansa: "Supporting Austrian in making itself fit for the future"
• Karsten Benz is new Chief Commercial Officer as of April 1st 2012

The Executive Board of Austrian Airlines has used the agreed 2-week period of grace to finalise the Work Programme. It proved possible to renegotiate support by the politicians, and a common understanding in the most important parts was also reached with the union GPA and the Works Council Ground. Unfortunately, the negotiations with the Works Council of the Board Staff was not successful. There has not yet been reached sufficient agreement on reforming the collective agreements.
The Chair of the Austrian Supervisory Board, Stefan Lauer, said the following: "The Supervisory Board has been informed in detail today as to the state of the restructuring efforts. Tomorrow, I shall report to the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which will concern itself with the issue of support for Austrian. In our role as shareholder, we support the management in making Austrian fit for a future which will be shaped by hard competition. For me, that is beyond question." On 15th March, the day after tomorrow, Austrian Airlines' owner Lufthansa will communicate its decisions.

Regardless of that, the Advisory Board of Austrian Airlines for preservation of interests of Austria, has asked the Executive Board at the suggestion of the Austrian Federation of trade unions, ÖGB, to not close the doors for negotiations about the collective agreements of Austrian Airlines completely. The Executive Board of Austrian Airlines will comply this request, because the superior objective of the reformation efforts is, to take the biggest home carrier into the profit zone. In the past 8 weeks, politicians and the airport have been invited to set in place measures securing the location, the hub Vienna. New conditions have been negotiated with suppliers, our route network plan focused on core markets in Eastern Europe, and extensions planned to the business client segment with the help of Lufthansa.

Austrian CEO Jaan Albrecht said the following: "We have spoken to a total of 100 partners, 99 of them are supporting us. Unfortunately, we have not succeeded in convincing one of our partners at the company. Despite this, we now have a Work Programme, which offers the basis for a new start of Austrian Airlines."

New Chief Commercial Officer
The decision has also been taken to appoint a new member of the Executive Board from 1st April 2012 onwards. Karsten Benz, currently Europe head of the Sales & Services Division at Lufthansa Passage, is to succeed Andreas Bierwirth in the position of Chief Commercial Officer, as proposed by the Supervisory Board Committee on 2nd March.

Benz said this: "Austrian Airlines has been and still is an important component of the Lufthansa Group strategy. I believe in the Austrian Airlines brand, and I believe in a good future for the red-white-red tail fin."