Already 51% capacity utilization

State Pays €750,000 Monthly for Frankfurt Flight

This aircraft, operated by the Danish airline DAT, flies between Linz and Frankfurt.(Bild: Flughafen Linz)

A request to the relevant Upper Austrian State Councilor for Economic Affairs reveals the payment terms for the publicly subsidized Linz-Frankfurt flight route. Meanwhile, the route’s load factor is rising and currently stands at just over 50 percent.

“Since operations began, monthly advance payments of 750,000 euros each have been made,” according to a written response to an inquiry from Upper Austria’s State Councilor for Economic Affairs, Markus Achleitner (ÖVP), regarding payments to the Danish airline DAT, which has been operating the Linz-Frankfurt route since March of this year. These are monthly advance payments; the final settlement will take place after the end of the first year of operation: At that time, DAT must send the State of Upper Austria a breakdown of the actual costs incurred for the route, offset against revenue from ticket sales.

The state will cover only the additional costs plus a “reasonable profit” and may therefore receive funds back. As reported, the subsidy is capped at a total of 36 million euros over four years.

Assessment of the Route Possible Only Later
The Greens had asked State Councilor Achleitner detailed questions about Linz Airport. The conclusion of his response: The scheduled service to Frankfurt can only be seriously evaluated after one or two years because, as planned, it will still be in the start-up phase until then. Detailed answers are therefore scarce for this reason. However: Passenger numbers are developing as expected, and capacity utilization has “already been around 20 percent higher in recent weeks than in the initial months,” according to the response to the Greens.

Green Party caucus leader Severin Mayr accuses Achleitner of “withholding information” regarding the response to the inquiry: “The state receives ongoing figures on passengers, load factor, revenue, and advance bookings. But they’re supposed to remain secret. With up to 36 million euros in taxpayer money at stake, this is not transparency—it is a refusal to provide information to the public.”

Currently 51 percent capacity utilization
As the “Krone” has learned, the load factor on the Frankfurt route currently stands at 51 percent. This does indeed indicate an increase in usage, as in the first two full months of the route’s operation—April and May—the flights were only about 31 percent full,as reported by the “Krone.” Reportedly, new bookings are also going well: 4,500 bookings for the route were received in August—a new record. In August, approximately 3,000 passengers used the route, a 10 percent increase over July, according to unofficial sources. The most popular connecting destinations via Frankfurt currently include Düsseldorf, London, Paris, and Dublin.

The scheduled service has been gradually expanded since its launch at the end of March. In September, 148 flights are already being offered, with three daily departures in each direction from Monday through Thursday.