Austrian Airlines Covid 19 Tested Flights from Vienna Airport.
Tanja Gruber, interview, Austrian Airlines and their COVID-19 tested flights, rapid antigen testing strategy and working with Vienna Airport and Hamburg Airport. Tanja Gruber is Head of Digital Communications & Media Relations, Austrian Airlines.
[ Ссылка ]
[ Ссылка ]
Voice Transcript:
- As the pandemic continued, we figured out that we need to find a solution to make people feel even more safe during travelling. And of course also to give other countries an impression how safe flying can be. So that's when we decided to focus on the antigen tests. We had this idea within the Lufthansa Group, so it was always a joint project with Lufthansa Group but, of course, also with Vienna Airport who was there from the beginning, and we thought we first have to check if this process works. So we did this testing project at the first step where people were able to choose if they want to take the test. We operated seven flight during this test to Berlin where people got the chance to use the test. Around 25% of people took the chance and really, yeah, did it. It was for free and it wasn't mandatory but they still took the chance. And as soon as we figured out that the process works, we wanted to put the test on another level. So we decided that we will operate 100% tested flights. The route we choose was to Hamburg because in Hamburg we got the chance to establish a test centre within Lufthansa Group together with Hamburg Airport which also other airlines within the Lufthansa Group can use. So we're operating the flight from Vienna to Hamburg and Lufthansa is operating the flight from Munich to Hamburg. So we, of course, can use the synergies and that why we decided to operate it on that route. First step or the most important learning was that we were able to integrate the antigen tests in our travel chain quite fast. So we now have an infrastructure, together with Vienna Airport, which gives us the chance to scale it on a larger level and that's what we're working toward. Our joint long-term goal is to break down borders which have been established during this pandemic. So our goal is to make flying more safe but also to open up travelling more and more and to give people the chance to travel to countries where quarantine rules were established before and didn't make that possible.
