Aviation History
Austrian civil aviation began in 1923 with ÖLAG (Österreichische Luftverkehrs AG), which flew the country's first scheduled route between Vienna and Munich, but organized commercial aviation was interrupted for a decade after World War II while Austria was under Allied occupation and barred from operating an air carrier. Sovereignty over aviation returned with the 1955 State Treaty, and in 1957 two young carriers, Air Austria and Austrian Airways, merged to form modern Austrian Airlines, which began scheduled flights in 1958. The airline transitioned to an all-jet fleet in the 1960s-70s, launched long-haul service to New York in 1989, and joined the Star Alliance in 2000. Facing financial pressure, Austrian Airlines was acquired by Lufthansa Group in 2009 and has operated as part of that group since, with Vienna serving as a key hub linking Western Europe to Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
Österreichische Luftverkehrs AG (ÖLAG) was founded in 1923 and flew Austria's first scheduled route between Vienna and Munich.
The Austrian State Treaty of 1955 ended post-war restrictions and allowed Austria to re-establish an independent civil airline.
Air Austria and Austrian Airways merged in 1957 to form Austrian Airlines, the modern flag carrier.
Austrian Airlines began scheduled service in 1958 with a leased Vickers Viscount on the Vienna-Zurich-London route.
Austrian Airlines ordered its first jet, a Sud Aviation Caravelle, in 1963, beginning its transition to an all-jet fleet by the early 1970s.
Austrian Airlines launched long-haul service to New York-JFK in 1989 using the Airbus A310.
Austrian Airlines joined the Star Alliance in 2000, expanding its global network through partner airlines.
Lufthansa completed its acquisition of Austrian Airlines in 2009 following European Commission approval, ending the carrier's independence.
Austrian Airlines · Tyrolean Airways · Niki · LaudaMotion
General aviation-history sources (Wikipedia, airline corporate histories); Austrian Airlines' current fleet and route network reflect its status as a Lufthansa Group subsidiary and may change with group strategy.
Aviation Firsts
Vienna International Airport — Schwechat/Vienna (1938): Opened 1938. Austria's main international airport today. An earlier civil airfield, Aspern Airport (Vienna, said to date to 1912 and to have served as the city's main airfield until Schwechat took over in 1938, closing in 1977), is commonly cited elsewhere as Vienna's/Austria's original civil airport, but its founding date and closure details could not be independently re-verified from a page fetched this session, so it is reported here only as unverified background, not as a competing dated claim. · VIE ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
Österreichische Luftverkehrs AG (ÖLAG) (1923): Founded 3 May 1923 (government approval); first flight Vienna-Munich, 14 May 1923. Austrian Airlines' own Wikipedia article treats this as the start of Austria's airline history, though it does not explicitly crown ÖLAG 'Austria's oldest airline.' Fully absorbed by Deutsche Lufthansa on 1 Jan 1939; struck from the commercial register Jun 1939. · Wikipedia ↗
Austrian Airlines (1957): Founded 4 Apr 1957, a merger of Air Austria and Austrian Airways (both formed 1955 post-WWII). Today a Lufthansa Group subsidiary. · OS ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
ÖLAG (1923) is the true first Austrian airline by founding date but has no corporate continuity to today's carrier (dissolved into Lufthansa in 1939; post-war Austrian aviation restarted from scratch in the 1950s). Austrian Airlines (1957) is the oldest airline operating continuously under a name tracing to today's flag carrier.
No documented foreign entrant found. Checked Swissport's Austria network page (confirms a current presence but no entry year or founding history) and a ground-handling company directory for Austria, which surfaced only Austria-headquartered firms such as Magnum Aviation and Axturis Flight Service, with no foreign-origin handler identified. No dated record of a foreign company's first entry into the Austrian ground-handling market was found.
Aviation Museums1
Fleet by Operator
Passengers by Operator
Annual Passenger Traffic by Airport
Airlines9
Live Air Traffic6 aircraft
Source: adsb.lol — community ADS-B network. Busiest of this country’s top 6 profiled airports by traffic right now, not a full national count.
Aircraft Spotted Here
Photo: Marco Vettor via JetPhotos
Photo: Pawel Cieplak via JetPhotos
Photo: Andrzej Makowski via JetPhotos
Photo: aerospotter07 via JetPhotos
Photo: Eduardo Seijo via JetPhotos
Photo: Andrzej Makowski via JetPhotosPhotos © their respective photographers, via JetPhotos.com — click a photo to view the original.