There are not many airline chief executive officers who have three airline fleets to play with. Vagn Soerensen, who holds that position at Austrian Airlines Group, has just that, and we are not talking about three insignificant fleets either. Austrian Airlines operates a 35-aircraft, largely Airbus fleet for scheduled international services from its Vienna hub. Lauda Air has a distinct personality of its own, operating Boeing aircraft on tourism routes to destinations such as South-East Asia, the Caribbean and Australia. Tyrolean Airways is a European regional airline (incorporating Rheintalflug, the former domestic carrier) and operates a mixed regional aircraft fleet of 40. The man that heads up the three airlines does not see the task as daunting; the interplay between the largely Airbus Austrian fleet, the largely Boeing Lauda fleet and the largely regional aircraft Tyrolean fleet forms part of the flexibility that can only make his turnaround plan for the group of airlines more likely to hit the mark.
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