The work being done to restructure Austrian Airlines is moving forward at speed. The company is now implementing another measure, with the restructuring of the Call Centre and Customer Relations Division. Call Centre activities, which until now have been carried out from two locations in Innsbruck and Vienna, will be concentrated in Innsbruck. This Call Centre, which will be outsourced to another company, will look after calls received by Austrian Airlines from within Austria.

Work is currently underway to check which location should take calls of Austrian Airlines from Western and Eastern Europe in future. We are currently comparing the costs within the Lufthansa Group. Telephone calls regarding the Miles & More customer loyalty programme will be taken over by the Call Centre of Lufthansa, which specialises in the field. The Baggage Claim Centre in Innsbruck will be closed down, and its work taken over by the Customer Relations unit of Austrian Airlines in Vienna.

The new structure will come into force in the spring of 2010. The Members of the Executive Board of Austrian Airlines, Andreas Bierwirth and Peter Malanik, said the following: “With this restructuring, we are creating streamlined, efficient structures and using the synergies created by the alliance. It is another step towards bringing the cost structure of Austrian Airlines down to a competitive level.”