Austrian Airlines plans to stop flying between Vienna and Cologne/Bonn in January 2027, leaving the route to its Lufthansa Group sister Eurowings. According to schedule data reported by AeroRoutes and picked up by aeroTELEGRAPH on 16 October, Austrian's last flight on the route is currently planned for 11 January 2027.
The connection itself will not disappear. Eurowings, which has a large base at Cologne/Bonn, will continue to fly to Vienna, and the route will be operated only by Eurowings within the Lufthansa Group once Austrian withdraws.
What Austrian flies today
Austrian schedules up to two daily flights between the two cities during the winter season. The timetable listed by AeroRoutes is:
- OS245 departs Vienna at 07:20 and arrives in Cologne/Bonn at 08:55, except Saturdays and Sundays.
- OS246 departs Cologne/Bonn at 09:40 and arrives in Vienna at 11:10, except Saturdays and Sundays.
- OS249 departs Vienna at 18:00 and arrives in Cologne/Bonn at 19:35, except Saturdays.
- OS250 departs Cologne/Bonn at 20:20 and arrives in Vienna at 21:50, except Saturdays.
Czech aviation site Airways.cz reported that Austrian has removed direct Vienna–Cologne flights after 11 January from its reservation system. The route is a typical short-haul business link, with a morning and an evening rotation on weekdays. Austrian has used Embraer 195 regional jets into Cologne/Bonn in the past.
Eurowings and Ryanair remain
Airways.cz notes that Eurowings also flies Vienna–Cologne twice a day on weekdays, mostly in the morning and evening, and that Austrian already sells those flights in its own booking system. The only other airline flying the route nonstop is Ryanair, which according to the site usually operates once a day on weekdays and twice a day at weekends and on Wednesdays.
For passengers, the change means Lufthansa Group customers will still have a direct option between the two cities, but on Eurowings rather than Austrian. The reports do not say how Austrian will handle any existing bookings after 11 January.
A group strategy at work
Airways.cz suggests the move is likely linked to the Lufthansa Group's previously announced strategy of reorganising short feeder flights around its hub airlines.
Cologne/Bonn is an important base for Eurowings. Airways.cz reports that Eurowings stationed 17 aircraft there this summer, five of them wet-leased with crews from Smartwings, and served about 70 destinations from the airport. Besides Vienna, Eurowings links Cologne/Bonn with other Lufthansa Group hubs including Zurich, Munich and Rome, as well as Lisbon and Porto, while Lufthansa itself flies to Munich several times a day.
The site also points out that Frankfurt Airport is about 50 minutes from Cologne by ICE high-speed train, and Brussels Airport roughly two hours by rail with one change, which gives travellers from the Rhineland several ways to reach the group's long-haul networks without a feeder flight.
Part of a busy period for Austrian
The Cologne/Bonn exit comes as Austrian reshapes its fleet and network. The airline is in the final stages of retiring its Boeing 767 widebodies and has been adding new Airbus A320neo aircraft.
None of the reports cites an official reason from Austrian for dropping the route, and schedules can still change before January. On current plans, though, Vienna–Cologne/Bonn will become another Lufthansa Group route served by just one group airline.
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