Laudamotion has confirmed that Ryanair finalised its acquisition of 100% of the company's capitalbecoming a de facto subsidiary of Ryanair Holdings. An event which allows the Irish carrier to announce the future of the low-cost carrier based in Vienna. Laudamotion to expand its fleet from 19 to 25 aircraft by the end of the year, and to 30 aircraft in 2020, to carry an additional 1.5 to 2 million passengers a year.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary, who was in Vienna with Laudamotion CEO Andreas Gruber, spoke of his ambitions for the Austrian airline. According to him, Laudamotion will further accelerate its development. By 2022, Laudamotion is set to integrate 40 aircraft and carry 10 million passengers. The company should break even in 2020, with losses last year estimated at around €50 million.
Over the current financial year, up to the end of March, it should carry four million passengers from five bases : Vienna, DüsseldorfStuttgart, Palma and a fifth city, the name of which should be revealed later this year. As for the flight programme, the company is looking at serving around fifty new airports between now and next year. From its new base in Stuttgart, which opens in February, Laudamotion will launch services to Marseille 31 March (two flights/week) and on Nice on 2 April (three flights a week). Since this winter it has also been serving the Paris-Beauvais-Vienna route with three flights a week.
Of all of them, Vienna remains the central base Laudamotion's second largest base is Düsseldorf with seven aircraft. This will make Laudamotion the second-largest airline at the Vienna hub behind Austrian Airlines. In fact, the Austrian capital has become the battlefield Europe's fiercest competition for low-cost carriers. In addition to the Austrian flag carrier, Vienna is also home to Easyjet, Level/Vueling, Wizz air and Laudamotion/Ryanair. And the airport is pleased to report that its passenger traffic has reached a new record in 2018 with 27 million passengers, and is even forecasting 30 million in 2019. And for passengers, prices in Vienna have never been so low...
