Michael O'Leary had to admit this week that the Austrian Subsidiary Lauda is doing worse than expected. In the worst case scenario, the loss in 2019 would amount to around 50 million, the low-cost airline had declared in February, in the best case scenario it would break even. Now things look pretty different, the Ryanair CEO admitted.
O'Leary at a press conference in Vienna on Wednesday (23 October) said that a loss of 70 to 75 million euros would be recorded in 2019. That means Lauda has burned more than 210 million euros in the first two years of operation. According to Aviation Net Online, the manager blames the cutthroat price war in Vienna. One million euros are currently lost each week.
Lauda wants to overtake Austrian Airlines
In 2020, O'Leary expects a loss of 25 million in the worst case scenario, but generally rather a break-even, as Air Transport World reports. For that reason Ryanair has postponed a previously announced order for A320 Neo for the time being. Nevertheless, the Irish airline still has a lot of ambitions with its subsidiary in Vienna.
Lauda can profit from the fact that Eurowings and Level are reducing operations in Vienna. The demise of Thomas Cook and Adria Airways also boost business, reasons O'Leary. «We have a load factor of 96 percent,» he stated according to Air Transport World. Lauda is number two behind Austrian Airlines and in the next five years they will outperform the Austrian Lufthansa subsidiary, O'Leary forecasts. Lauda will operate 36 aircraft in summer - from four locations: Düsseldorf, Palma, Stuttgart and Vienna.
