On Monday, Austrian Airlines celebrated the operation of their first flight after a hiatus of around 90 days. Passengers on the flight, which departed Vienna at 6:30 AM for Munich, were greeted by company team members including company CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech.
Today, Austrian Airlines celebrated their first scheduled flight after a break of around 90 days due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Passengers traveling on the departing flight were greeted at the airport in Vienna by Austrian Airlines team members, including the company’s CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech, who were all donning colorful face masks, some with the airline’s logo and the carrier’s marketing tagline “SERVUS.” The first flight departed Vienna at 6:30 AM this morning (June 15, 2020) en-route to Munich.
All guests and team members of the carrier must wear a mask at the airport as well as onboard flights and physical distancing should be practiced where possible. The carrier requests that customers bring their own mouth and nose covering masks to ensure proper fit and personal comfort and notes that children under six are exempt from the requirement. Vienna Airport has installed social distance markings and signs, Plexiglas panels at counters and disinfectant dispensers. I n Monday’s announcement, Austrian Airport’s Executive Board Member, Julian Jäger said,
“I am pleased that Austrian Airlines is starting scheduled flights again, and that we will be able to concentrate on flight operations again. Together we already took numerous measures to ensure the safety of our passengers and employees. In doing so, we are also complying with the safety recommendations of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is already working on the development of international standards and is thus a pioneer in Europe. We play an active role in this area, and Vienna Airport has recently become and EASA test airport.”
Also commenting on today’s return to service, Austrian Airlines’ CEO, Alexis von Hoensbroech added,
“Safety is the top priority at Austrian Airlines at all times and includes health protection. For this reason, we have developed a protection concept in cooperation with Vienna Airport and medical experts, which covers the entire travel chain. I am convinced that this will enable us to achieve an ideal balance between safety and service.”
Austrian Airlines advises their guests to check-in from home and to use self-service baggage drop off devices to minimize person-to-person contact. Guests will also be permitted to take carry-on luggage aboard Austrian Airlines’ flights, however the carrier recommends checking baggage that will not be needed inflight. This option is available free of charge and will help accelerate the boarding process. Contactless boarding is also available using the “quick boarding gates” which only require passengers to scan their boarding passes. In order to maintain social distancing to the extent possible, the carrier will board passengers in smaller groups and when buses are used for boarding, a reduced number of passengers per bus will be carried.
Upon boarding, each guest of Austrian Airlines will receive a disinfectant wipe and if practicable, in terms of capacity utilization, customers will be seated to maximize social distancing. Additionally, all the carrier’s aircraft are fitted with advanced HEPA filters which remove 99.9 percent of all airborne viruses, bacteria and particulates. The air filtration system exchanges the cabin air every three minutes with 60 percent fresh and 40 percent recirculated air which has been purified by the HEPA filters. Since the flow pattern of the air filtration system operates only in a vertical direction, there is no dissemination of air across individual rows of seats.
Source: Austrian Airlines