A Group in Crisis
At the start of the 2010s, the Austrian Airlines Group was in economic difficulty. As a restructuring measure, on 30 April 2012, the group announced that it would transfer the entire flight operations of Austrian Airlines AG, not just the existing regional fleet, to Tyrolean Airways GmbH with retroactive effect from 1 July 2012. Group CEO Jaan Albrecht justified the unusual step by pointing to the more favourable collective-bargaining terms at Tyrolean and presented it as a necessary measure to stabilise the parent company, Austrian Airlines, economically.
The Transfer on 1 July 2012
On 1 July 2012, practically the entire fleet of Austrian Airlines AG, around 460 pilots and about 1,500 cabin crew transferred to Tyrolean Airways GmbH. Alongside the existing regional aircraft, the new fleet now also included Airbus A319, A320 and A321 jets as well as Boeing 767-300ER and 777-200ER aircraft. A single Boeing 777-200ER (OE-LPB) remained with Austrian Airlines AG for aviation-law reasons. All transferred flights kept their familiar OS flight numbers but from then on carried the suffix “operated by Tyrolean”, and the former “Austrian arrows” brand name was dropped for good.
Opposition and Legal Proceedings
The transfer of fleet and staff was highly contentious among staff representatives and was subsequently challenged in court on several occasions. In September 2014, courts at two instances, as well as the European Court of Justice, ruled in favour of the workforce, finding that the transfer had in fact been a regular transfer of undertaking, with corresponding employment-law consequences for the staff affected. At that point, a final decision was still pending before Austria’s Supreme Court (OGH).
As early as March 2014, Tyrolean managing director Klaus Froese had publicly hinted at a possible dissolution of the company. On 8 October 2014, the group and the workforce finally agreed on a new collective-bargaining model for flight crew, combined with the announcement that flight operations would be transferred back to Austrian Airlines AG. The new collective agreement was signed on 31 October 2014 and took effect on 1 December 2014.
Sources (Selection)
- Wikipedia (German): Tyrolean Airways
- Wikipedia: Tyrolean Airways
- ch-aviation: Austrian/Tyrolean merger announcement
Further reading: → Merger and the End as an Independent Company (2015)
← The Austrian Arrows Brand · Back to overview
This chapter is part of the detailed corporate history of Tyrolean Airways. Independent, private history project with no connection to Austrian Airlines AG, the Lufthansa Group or the Swarovski corporate group.