Lauda, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ryanair, announced the closing of its Vienna base after an argument between the airline and unions.
Earlier this year, Ryanair threatened to close the base if they could not agree on salary cuts for Lauda employees based in Vienna. The airline, like any other in the world, has felt a significant decline in revenue, passengers and flights, which was caused by the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, Lauda’s parent company Ryanair was seeking an agreement with transport unions in Austria to cut workers’ salaries at Vienna base.
Austrian workers union Vida claimed that the terms proposed by Ryanair were unjustifiable. As it seems, the agreement was not reached and the airline chose to close one of its bases.
The carrier told that “Lauda deeply regrets the loss of more than 300 jobs for its A320-team and the closing of Lauda’s A320 base in Vienna on Friday May 29”.
Lauda also has bases in Stuttgart, Dusseldorf and Palma, but Vienna was the biggest one of them hosting 15 out of 27 aircraft present in the airline’s fleet.