55339

Austrian Airlines was set up on 30 Sep 57 and began operations on 31 Mar 58 on the Vienna-London route using Vickers Viscounts leased from shareholder Fred Olsen. A short time later, services also began to Frankfurt, Zurich, Paris, Stuttgart and Rome. In Feb 60, AUA bought its own Vickers Viscount 837s. In Apr 63, the Caravelles entered service. Domestic routes were still being served with DC-3s, which were subsequently replaced in 1966 by HS 748s. During 1969, AUA underwent a reorganisation with unprofitable routes and the entire domestic network being dropped. The DC-9s were ordered, with the first entering service in 1971. Two attempts to launch long-range services with Boeing 707s, the first in association with Sabena in 1969, were abandoned in 1973. From 1975, DC-9-51s were ordered and AUA was one of the launch customers for the MD-81. From 1988, MD-87s, with extended range, were also added to the fleet. The third atempt at long-range services in 1989 was more successful and began with services to Tokyo and New York, using Airbus A310s. Three new types entered the fleet during 1995: the Fokker 70, Airbus A321 and Airbus A340, all of which displayed a new color scheme. During 1999, Austrian broke away from its long-term 'Qualifyer' partner Swissair and joined the Star Alliance from March 2000. Austrian now owns the majority of Lauda Air and Tyrolean Airways. Fleet changes during 1999 were the introduction of the Airbus A330 and the beginning of the replacement of the MD-80s by the Airbus A320 and A321. By popular request of our European collectors, we now release the A320-200 in the colors of Austrian Airlines.