Austrian Airlines appointed World Aviation Systems in April 2007 and representation covers both Australia and New Zealand - Passenger.

AUSTRIAN AIRLINES HISTORY

Austria established the world’s first regular international air connection on 1 April 1918, when it opened its route between Vienna and Kiev. Initially, this served only to transport post. In July 1918, the line from Vienna to Budapest was also opened.

On 14 May 1923, the first aircraft to be operated by ÖLAG (Österreichische Luftverkehrs AG) flew from Vienna to Munich. ÖLAG soon expanded to become the fourth-largest airline in Europe. Following the occupation of Austria in 1938, ÖLAG was forced to cease operations.

When Austria regained sovereignty over its airspace in 1955 with the signature of the State Treaty, two separate carriers were founded, Air Austria and Austrian Airways. Neither of the two began operating flights at this stage. On 4 April 1957, the two companies finally merged to form a single airline, Austrian Airlines.

On 30 September 1957, Austrian Airlines AG was founded, and the new company began to operate scheduled services on 31 March 1958 with four Vickers Viscount 779 planes on the Vienna – London route. Lauda Air began in 1979 with charter flights on two small Fokker 27 planes.

Over a period of time Lauda Air grew in size and expanded its operations to include Australia. In 2004 Lauda Air and Austrian Airlines merged with the latter taking over the services to/from Australia (Sydney and Melbourne).

Due to the spiraling cost of aviation fuel, Austrian Airlines withdrew its on-line services to/from Australia in March 2007.

Austrian Airlines flies to 130 destinations in 66 countries, and is a member of the global Star Alliance, the largest airline alliance in the world.