Austrian confirms Dreamliner future

Austrian Airlines will retire its 767s and 777s, transitioning to the 787 Dreamliner for long-haul operations. The first new 787 will join Austrian‘s fleet in Summer 2024. The remaining aircraft will be delivered through 2028, resulting in 10 787-9s flying for the company.

With the ‘Dreamliner’ Austrian Airlines is taking off to a new era of aircraft and is setting course for growth. The fleet induction of ten Boeing 787-9 in the coming five years shows that we are fit for investments and the future.

– Austrian Airlines CEO Annette Mann

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This news was expected since the announcement at the beginning of March of an expanded twin-aisle order book for the Lufthansa Group, parent company of Austrian. At that time the company announced the new planes would “in the medium-term future” replace older types, including the 777-200 and 767-300. Austrian is the only operator of those types within the Group.

The first five aircraft to join the Austrian fleet will come from Lufthansa‘s fleet. These “Sprinter” deliveries, as they are known internally at Lufthansa Group, will transfer from Lufthansa to Austrian. These aircraft were originally built for Hainan Airlines but that order was canceled early in the pandemic.

Late last year reports emerged suggesting that the planes would only fly for Lufthansa as a “bridge” to the new long-haul fleet. With the details of the Allegris cabin finally announced earlier this year (and these planes very much not meeting that spec) it makes sense to schedule their transition to Austrian.

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As configured today the planes fly with 294 seats. This includes 26 in business class, a premium economy class cabin of 21 seats in a 2-3-2 configuration and 247 seats in economy. The carrier declined to comment on future cabin configurations for when the planes transition to Austrian.