Austrian Airlines ends Q400 operations

Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) ended its six-year in-house operation of DHC-8-Q400 turboprops on May 31, with the last return flight from Vienna to Innsbruck and back operated by OE-LGI (msn 4100). The Austrian carrier decided to replace the De Havilland Aircraft of Canada aircraft with additional A320-200s before the pandemic, but the ensuing crisis accelerated the timeline for the phase-out of its only turboprops. The bulk of its 18-strong fleet of the type was retired in 2019 and 2020, with eight units still active at the beginning of 2021. Of these, six were retired by the end of March and remain in storage at Bratislava airport. OE-LGI and OE-LGJ (msn 4104) continued to operate through the end of May. “Austrian Airlines is well prepared for the fleet retirement of the Dash. With the comfortable, efficient Embraer and Airbus aircraft, we will continue to offer our passengers a good feeder service with Vienna as our hub”, Chief Commercial Officer Michael Trestl said. Austrian Airlines inducted all eighteen DHC-8-Q400s on April 1, 2015, when it completed the merger with subsidiary Tyrolean Airways (VO, Innsbruck), which used to operate the type on behalf of Austrian Airlines. Tyrolean Airways inducted 14 of these aircraft between 2000 and 2010, taking the deliveries directly from the manufacturer. In 2014, it added a further four second-hand aircraft manufactured between 2001 and 2009 and transferred from Augsburg Airways, the ch-aviation fleets history module shows. Tyrolean Airways also used to operate DHC-7-100s, DHC-8-100s, DHC-8-300s, and DHC-8-Q300s, Austrian Airlines owned all eighteen of its DHC-8-Q400s. Following the retirement of the Q400s, Austrian Airlines’ fleet includes seventeen E195s, seven A319-100s, twenty-nine A320-200s, three A321-100s, three A321-200s, four B767-300(ER)s, and six B777-200(ER)s.