Austrian Airlines expects company to be 20% smaller in 2022, says CEO

Austrian Airlines expects its business to end up a fifth smaller by 2022 and to have cut the number of its employees by around 1,100 from 7,000 currently, its head said. Austria has agreed a E450million bailout for the group that will protect Vienna as a transit hub and safeguard "the bulk" of the flag carrier's jobs, the government said Monday. "Our goal is 80% of the former size of the company in 2022, which from today's perspective would mean 1,100 employees too many," Alexis von Hoensbroech was quoted as saying by Der Standard when asked about job cuts. "We are planning two years of short-time work, there can be no layoffs for that long, and we assume that we will achieve a large part of the reduction by 2022 through fluctuation," he said. The paper cited Lufthansa's CE as saying the deal -- which stipulates that the Vienna hub must grow at the same rate as Munich, Frankfurt and Zurich -- is valid only until 2023.<br/>