Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) has announced it will undertake significant changes to its route network with the onset of the upcoming Winter 2018/19 season.

The Lufthansa Group unit said in a statement last week that effective September, it would terminate service to Esfahan Shahid Beheshti International and Shiraz in Iran although its current Tehran Imam Khomeini route will remain intact. Then, in October, it will terminate flights to Hong Kong International, Havana International (Cuba), and Colombo International (Sri Lanka) culminating with the axing of flights to the Austrian city of Linz Blue Danube on October 27. With effect from the end of October 2018, flights to Miami International will transition from year-round to a summer-only basis.

“With the entire fleet and now 12 long-haul aircraft, we want to offer a denser route network and thus an improved offer for our passengers,” Austrian Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Andreas Otto said. “For this reason, we will take advantage of available capacities, especially to serve North America more optimally. This way, we aim to be more attractive to business travelers and transfer passengers in Eastern Europe and also to simply gain more customers."

The freed up capacity will allow Austrian to then increase the frequency of flights to key markets in North America and China. On balance, the carrier will operate up to 29 flights per week to destinations in North America as part of its winter flight schedule and up to 19 flights to Asian destinations.

Among the North American cities slated for an increase in service are Chicago O'Hare and New York Newark which will grow from 5x and 4x weekly to daily and 6x weekly respectively. Service to New York JFK will also grow from 2x weekly to 5x weekly. In Canada, Austrian will add one more weekly flight to its Toronto Pearson service bringing its overall total to five flights per week.

In Asia, Austrian will add an additional weekly flight to each of its 4x weekly Beijing Capital and Shanghai Pudong services this coming winter.

It is recalled that effective October 27, Austrian will also start flights to Cape Town International in South Africa.