Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) is reportedly leaning towards the Bombardier Aerospace (BBA, Montréal Trudeau) CSeries as a potential replacement for its outgoing fleet of Fokker Aircraft (Woensdrecht). Informed sources who spoke to Canada's Globe & Mail newspaper on condition of anonymity said the Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) subsidiary has asked its parent for the go-ahead to acquire sixteen CSeries jets to replace its fifteen Fokker 100s and six Fokker 70s. The report did not specify which CSeries model - the A220-100 or the CS300 - would be acquired.
Austrian earlier this year suspended its fleet renewal planning after it failed to reach a consensus with its trade unions concerning a new Group collective wage agreement. However, having recently clinched a break through deal with its unions, it is believed those plans are now back on.
Among the other options Austrian has studied are the A319-100 from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) and the E190 from Embraer (EMB, São José dos Campos Professor Urbano Ernesto Stumpf), the paper said.
Fellow Lufthansa subsidiary, Swiss (LX, Zurich), is set to take delivery of its first of thirty CS100s later next year with options for thirty more airframes. The twinjets will replace Swiss European Air Lines' fleet of twenty ARJ-100s.
