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 responsible Upper Austrian State Councilor for Economic Affairs reveals the payment terms for the publicly subsidized Linz-Frankfurt flight route. Meanwhile, the load factor on the route 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 previously 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 questioned Provincial Councilor Achleitner at length about Linz Airport. The conclusion of his response: The scheduled service to Frankfurt can only be reliably evaluated after one or two years, because it will still be in the start-up phase until then, as planned. Detailed answers are therefore scarce for this reason. However, the response to the Greens states that passenger numbers are developing as expected, and that load factor “has already been about 20 percent higher in recent weeks than in the initial months.”

Current load factor: 51 percent
As the “Krone” learned, the load factor for the Frankfurt route currently stands at 51 percent. This does indeed indicate an increase in usage, as during 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: In August, 4,500 bookings for the route were reportedly received—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 route 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.