Laudamotion announces growth plans as it becomes Ryanair subsidiary

Austrian low-cost airline Laudamotion confirmed on Tuesday that Ryanair completed the purchase of 100% of it from NL Holdings in late December, with Laudamotion now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ryanair Holdings.

The firm announced a series of growth initiatives at the same time, including the increase of its fleet to 25 aircraft in summer 2019, from 19 a year earlier.

It also signed letters of intent with a number of lessors, which would increase its summer 2020 fleet to 30 Airbus aircraft, which would allow it to grow its traffic from four million passengers to six million guests in the full-year to March 2020, and to 7.5 million the year ending March 2021.

In the coming summer, Laudamotion said it would operate four bases as it grew in Vienna from four to eight aircraft, with seven planes in Dusseldorf, three in Stuttgart and two in Palma.

The airline said that in winter 2019, the Vienna base would increase further to 11 aircraft, making Laudamotion Vienna’s second-largest airline, just behind Austrian Airlines.

Laudamotion released the first part of its winter 2019 flight schedules on Tuesday, claiming lower fares and higher frequencies from Vienna in particular.

Details of up to 20 new routes from Vienna, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, and Palma were set to be announced in the next two months, once airport and handling negotiations were successfully completed.

The airline also announced details of up to 400 new jobs for pilots, cabin crew, and engineers across its four bases, and unveiled details of its new head office at Concorde Business Park, which it would move into in March.

“With the backing of Ryanair, Laudamotion is set to grow strongly over the next three years to carry 10 million passengers per annum,” said chief executive officer Andreas Gruber.

“We will release details of up to 20 new routes for winter 2019 once we have completed our airport and handling negotiations by the end of March.

“Our summer 2019 program will allow us to carry six million passengers in year two - a growth rate of 50% over the four million carried in year one, as we continue to offer our customers in Vienna, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf and Palma the lowest air fares on a fleet of young Airbus aircraft with widespread passenger appeal and great Lauda service.”

Laudamotion’s deputy CEO, Colin Casey, added that the firm was currently negotiating new routes and handling agreements with more than 50 new airports, all of whom he said wanted to share in Laudamotion’s “exciting growth plans” for the coming years.

“As other airlines falter, close bases or put themselves up for sale - as in the case of Germania recently - we are inundated with applications from pilots and cabin crew who wish to join Austria’s number one low fares airline as we embark on exciting growth plans, not just in Austria and Germany, but in other new countries as well,” Casey said.

“In winter 2019 we hope to announce at least one new base, which will be outside of Austria and Germany, and there are a number of new airports both in Central & Western Europe who are pitching to win this business.

“At a time when Austrian Airlines are carrying 13.9 million passengers, we have exciting plans to grow to 10 million passengers within next 3 years and become Austria’s number two.”