Summary
- Boston has gained its first Vienna flights.
- Austrian operates five/six weekly in the summer, fewer in the winter, on the Boeing 767-300ER.
- The carrier now has flights to seven North American airports this summer.
Boston has gained Vienna flights for the first time, with the inaugural service lifting off on July 1, the day of writing. This is the latest and last new European route from the Massachusetts airport in 2024. It joins Azores Airlines to Funchal and Porto, which began in June; JetBlue to Paris CDG, which started in April; and JetBlue to Dublin, which took off in March.
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Five of the routes are new this year.
Vienna to Boston
Austrian has inaugurated Vienna-Boston flights just in time for the peak season. The route, which covers 3,522 nautical mile (6,523 km) each way, is served five to six times weekly during the summer and three weekly in the winter. The 211-seat Boeing 767-300ER is exclusively deployed.
The Star Alliance member and Lufthansa Group carrier has three 767s, which average nearly 25 years old. They are its lowest-capacity widebody equipment and look resplendent in the airline’s bold but simple livery. The 767 will be replaced by the 787-9, which entered Austrian’s long-haul network in mid-June 2024.
The route is scheduled as follows, with all times local. The first round trip deployed OE-LAY, a 25.6-year-old 767 delivered to Lauda in 1998. It is Austrian’s oldest 767 and fourth-oldest widebody after three 777-200ERs.
- Vienna-Boston: OS91, 10:40-13:50 (9h 10m block)
- Boston-Vienna: OS92, 17:10-07:25+1 (8h 15m)
A look at the market
Booking data shows that Vienna-Boston had approximately 28,000 point-to-point passengers last year (i.e., 38 passengers daily each way, obviously much more in the summer). It was Boston’s ninth-largest unserved European market.
In contrast, the Massachusetts city was ‘only’ Vienna’s third-largest unserved North American destination after Miami (served by Austrian until 2019) and San Francisco (not previously linked). Globally, it was the 12th-largest unserved long-haul market.
Photo: Wirestock Creators | Shutterstock
The image below shows that Austrian’s North American services are heavily coordinated. As you’d expect, this increases two-way connectivity over Vienna.
Image: OAG
Using OAG to examine Austrian’s full schedule in July shows 23 destinations connect to/from Boston. This is based on no more than a five-hour wait in Vienna and flying no more than 50% out of your way. It seems very few, if any, of them weren’t already available from Boston on a one-change-of-plane basis.
In 2023, they had about 1.2 million passengers (1,643 PDEW), reduced to 739,000 (1,012 PDEW) when Heathrow was excluded. To determine what proportion of the market Austrian could capture would depend on its schedule, product, fares, elapsed time, frequency, departure time at both ends, aircraft type, any interline/codeshare partners, and more.
Image: GCMap
Austrian’s summer network
Its Vienna route map comprises seven routes to the US and Canada. Naturally, there’s a significant emphasis on Star Alliance hubs:
- Montreal: daily 767-300ER
- Newark: daily 777-200ER
- Washington Dulles: daily 767-300ER
- Chicago O’Hare: six weekly 787-9
- Los Angeles: six weekly 777-200ER
- New York JFK: six weekly 787-9
- Boston: five to six weekly 767-300ER
Where else would you like Austrian to serve in North America? Let us know in the comments section.