A spokesman for Austrian Airlines said their merger with Lufthansa will have “no immediate effect” on Middle East routes. Pia Stradiot said “The network will not change much, but there will possibly be some cuts. It is too early to tell at the moment.” The announcement of the merger came only five days ago, and Austrian Airlines will now assess its route table in the region. These consist of Dubai, Amman, Riyadh, Jeddah, Cairo, Damascus, Tehran, and Erbil in Iraq.
Daily Dubai flights were recently cut from two to one although the service now operates on a bigger Boeing 767 with 230 seats. Previously the service operated on a small 126 seat Airbus. The flight to Vienna departs at 1:45 am in Dubai and arrives at 6:10 am in Vienna. The Dubai-Vienna premium service provides special Arabian menus in Business Class with an “Arabian Nights” theme.
