Ryanair’s collaboration with Austrian carrier Laudamotion will see 21 aircraft flying from nine airports in Austria, Germany and Switzerland from June.
The details emerged a week after the Irish low fares carrier confirmed plans to take an initial 24.9% stake in the Austrian airline led by former Formula One racing driver Niki Lauda formed from the ashes of his previous carrier NIKI, part of defunct former owner Air Berlin.
Ryanair ultimately wants to take a 75% controlling interest in Laudamotion, but this is subject to approval by the EU Competition Authority.
Based in Vienna, Lauda will chair the newly created Laudamotion board and be responsible establishing the businbess as an Austrian low-fare airline for the scheduled and charter market.
The inaugural Laudamotion flight from Dusseldorf took off last Sunday – just 25 days after the takeover from NIKI on March 1.
The agreement with Ryanair will allow the gradual growth of Laudamotion in Austria which currently has a fleet of ten Airbus aircraft.
Ryanair will provide financial and management support to Laudamotion as well as six aircraft wet-leased for the summer.
This will support plans to complete a summer flying programme of 65 routes based on 21 aircraft from June.
Four aircraft will be based in Vienna with flights to Palma in Majorca increasing up to three a day. Four Laudamotion aircraft will be based in Berlin Tegel, six in Dusseldorf, one each in Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Nuremberg and Stuttgart, with two in Zurich.
Laudamotion’s new Berlin Tegel base will open on June 1 offering low fare routes to 17 destinations – Barcelona, Brindisi, Corfu, Faro, Fuerteventura, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kos, Lanzarote, Las Palmas, Malaga, Milan Malpensa, Palma, Pula, Rhodes, Rijeka and Tenerife. These routes went on sale yesterday on Ryanair.com.
A winter city shuttle service is planned with up to three more aircraft based in Vienna.