Lauda Air

Austrian airline founded by Niki Lauda

Lauda Air Luftfahrt GmbH, branded as Lauda Air was an Austrian airline headquartered in Vienna, Austria. It operated scheduled leisure flights and charter flights to vacation destinations in Europe, North America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia.[1]

Lauda Air
IATA ICAO Callsign
NG LDA LAUDA
FoundedApril 1979; 44 years ago (1979-04)
Commenced operations1985; 39 years ago (1985)
Ceased operations6 April 2013; 10 years ago (2013-04-06)
(merged into Austrian Airlines)
HubsVienna
Focus cities
Frequent-flyer programLaudaPoints
AllianceStar Alliance (affiliate; 2000—2013)
SubsidiariesLauda Air Italy (1991—2005)
Fleet size66 (formerly)
Destinations38 (formerly)
Parent companyAustrian Airlines Group
HeadquartersSchwechat, Austria
Key people
Websitelaudaair.com

History change

Lauda Air was founded in April 1979 by former Formula 1 driver and champion Niki Lauda. They began operations in 1985 with air taxi and charter services.

Authorization for regular operations was given in 1987. In 1990 it was authorized to carry out international flights. In 1989 Lauda Air began its first long-range flight from Vienna to Sydney and Melbourne via Kuala Lumpur. Daily flights to Miami via Munich, to Dubai and to Cuba followed.

It became a 100% owned subsidiary of Austrian Airlines in December 2000. They had 35 employees (as of March 2007). In 2005 the flight operations were taken over by Austrian Airlines. Lauda Air is used currently as the brand that operates the charter flights of the Austrian Airlines Group.

Niki Lauda has started a new airline named Niki. For its part, the Austrian Airlines Group will make a decision whether to integrate the entire Lauda Air Charter Flight fleet into the common Austrian Airlines design or not, at the beginning of 2007. The goals would be to identify itself as a single airline (simplicity) and to avoid advertising of Niki Lauda's new airline. This would mean the total disappearance of Lauda Air.

Incidents and accidents change

References change

  1. Lauda Air Archived 2019-02-12 at the Wayback Machine; DIE Press; retrieved .