Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines have only recently started receiving their Airbus A 320 NEOs, of which they operate fairly small fleets. I suspect that with Lufthansa, the decision which airline to allocate its newest aircraft to, is very much determined by their financial performance. Which is, of course, bad news for Austrian Airlines and especially for Brussels Airlines too, seeing as nobody can remember when either one of the two carriers last turned in a profit.

Getting to Vienna Airport from Wien Mitte

On Sunday morning at 09h30 I exit the Hilton am Stadtpark. I walk the short distance to Wien Mitte railway station, enter through the main entrance and make walk out the back end onto Marxergasse, where the replacement bus service arrives and departs for the airport while they work on the tracks. There’s a departure every twelve minutes. The outbound to the airport takes slightly more than twenty minutes in good traffic.

Austrian Airlines Business Class Check-In

The bus from the city terminates at Terminal 3, which is home to Austrian Airlines. I enter the building at Arrivals on ground level and take the escalators one floor up to Departures. There’s a young man manning the entrance to the dedicated Business Class and Senator check-in area. Ahead of me is an elderly couple and the young man is trying to establish whether the couple are in possession of a ticket that might entitle them to use the premium check in facilities. “Do you have a reservation in Business Class”, he asks, to which the elderly gentleman looks at him as though he just grew a second head. “Of course I do, wouldn’t be here with my wife without a reservation”. Realising that this will likely take a while, the young man quickly scans my boarding pass and lets me through, before turning his attention fully back to the elderly couple.

Austrian Airlines Senator Lounge

Behind security I head for the Austrian Airlines Senator Lounge, which is one floor up. If you’re exiting the Schengen area, make a left turn at the top of the escalators. If it’s the lounge you’re looking for, take a right and keep on walking. Vienna Airport is such a weird place, you always have the impression that you’re walking somewhere that really shouldn’t be open to the general public – because then it would likely be nicer.

Where the hell have I ended up? The lady at reception checks my in and points me to the Senator Lounge on my left. The lounge is very small and hence, also very crowded. For a moment I can’t believe my luck when I spot an empty table next to a Chinese couple. It’s only once I’m seated that I quickly realise why the lounge’s other patrons are likely giving them a wide birth. The lady opens her handbag and then starts flossing her teeth, right there in front of everybody. Meanwhile, her husband on the other side of the table gets a napkin which he carefully opens and then drapes over the table. He unpacks his electric shaver from his bag and starts having a shave, with little bits of stubble going everywhere – just not on the napkin he’s prepared. Luckily I can make a quick escape as a seat by the window becomes available. From then on, the lounge just gets busier and busier. By the time I leave, it’s like one big cocktail party and there are people holding plates and eating standing in the absence of a place to sit.

Austrian Airlines Business Class Boarding

Ten minutes before boarding I leave the lounge, simply because it’s becoming unpleasant with all the people in it. I walk along the F concourse and try to figure out what it is about Vienna Airport that I find so terrible. Eventually I come to the conclusion that it’s two things. The first is that the finish of Terminal 3 is just so cheap that everything looks like it’s only there provisionally and will eventually be torn down. The second thing, as I mentioned before, is that most of it doesn’t look like an airport. As a result, half the time you really do feel like you’re walking through corridors where you shouldn’t be.

In any case, the flight is boarding from gate F08 and the beginning of the pier. There’s a boarding call for passengers with children, passengers needing assistance, and passengers in boarding groups 1 and 2. Although the aircraft is parked on a contact stand, passengers are advise to use the rear door to enter the aircraft if they’re sitting on row 18 or higher.

Austrian Airlines Business Class Cabin & Seat

Originally, this flight should have been operated by an Airbus A 320 NEO, but it looks like there’s been yet another last minute aircraft change, and so I’m back on another one of their regular A 320s. There are only two rows to the Business Class cabin on this flight, and all seats are occupied. When I checked in the day before, 1C and 1D were empty, so I’m figuring those were likely two complimentary upgrades. The seat pitch is okay. The seats really are quite uncomfortable after a while, though.

Austrian Business Class Service & Crew

The Austrian Airlines crews, I’m realising, are rather inconsistent in their service delivery. For one, the crew on this flight seems rather friendly. They’re all smiles and interact very nicely with passengers. The service in the Business Class cabin is done by the purser, who is quite senior, and she’s great! For another, on this flight the purser passes through the cabin offering packaged towels from a tray, which so far has only happened on the other flights I took on this trip when there was a delay. The flight crew announce a flight time of 65 minutes.

Austrian Business Class Meal – Lunch

I’m starting to think that Austrian Airlines’ catering and the quality of the meal that is served vary considerably and depend a lot on where you’re flying to. On the flight from Zürich to Vienna the catering was quite good. However, on the flights to and from Tirana it was rather bland, bordering bad. And now, on the flight back to Zürich I’m served another nice meal. It consists of a small bowl of smoked salmon in a crème fraîche sauce, served with asparagus, boiled egg, radishes, and roe. And for dessert there’s a slice of a triangular piece of cake that is obviously inspired by the legendary Sacher Torte. And there’s good news on the coffee cup front too. When the purser comes to inquire if I’d like a coffee, I ask her if perhaps they have larger cups and tell her I’m happy with a cardboard cup too. “There’s no need for that”, she tells me, and returns a moment later with a cup of coffee with milk in a decently sized mug. Finally! I pass on the Mozart Kugel when the crew pass through with them before landing.

Arrival in Zürich

By the time we enter Swiss airspace over Lake Constance, we’re already in the descent for Zürich Airport. We do one orbit in a holding pattern just south of the lake, which is clearly showing the signs of the record breaking heatwave we’ve had in Europe this summer. Our approach is from the North for an arrival on runway 14. The E pier looks very quiet. There’s the Emirates A 380 sitting at the far northwestern corner of the pier and a lone Edelweiss A 350 on the other side. And ahead of us, the Royal Jordanian E2 from Ammann is taxiing in. That will eventually also park at the E pier. We cross runway 28 and make our way to our gate at the beginning of the soon to be demolished A pier, passing a Croatia Airlines Airbus A 220-300 as we go.

Conclusion – Austrian Airlines Business Class

Austrian Airlines was a bit of a mixed bag on this trip – in so many respects. The crews on the flights to and from Zürich were friendly and rather nice, whereas those on the flights to and from Tirana were a bit inconsistent, while the crew on the flight from Graz were positively unpleasant in their lack of motivation. The same goes for the meals. Excluding the Graz flight, for obvious reasons, the food on the flights to and from Zürich was nice, while the food on the Tirana flights really left a lot to be desired. In the sum of all things, it’s a shame that SWISS has had to withdraw from the Zürich to Vienna route and handed the service over to Austrian Airlines, which now operates with up to nine daily flight pairs. I mean, obviously it’s all Lufthansa now, but I do think the catering and service on SWISS are better. As for Vienna Airport, it is what it is, sadly. Perhaps things will improve once they open the annex that houses the new lounges.