Austrian Airlines

Is Austrian Airlines safe?

Yes. Austrian Airlines has not had a fatal accident since 1960, and it has written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary no aircraft in the last 20 years. It is overseen by Austro Control under European (EASA) rules and holds IOSA registrationIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary. We score it 86. It loses points for an old long-haul fleet that is only now being replaced, and for a handful of serious incidents, the most dramatic of them a flight into a hailstorm in 2024.

Austrian is a busy short-haul airline. In 2025 it flew 124,038 flights and carried 15.0 million passengers, according to the Lufthansa Group annual report. Its last fatal accident was on 26 September 1960, when a Vickers Viscount crashed on approach to Moscow and 31 people died.

What about Lauda Air and Tyrolean?

Austrian absorbed two other Austrian airlines, and both are often linked to its record. Lauda Air, the airline founded by Niki Lauda, lost a Boeing 767 over Thailand on 26 May 1991 when a thrust reverser deployed in flight; all 223 people on board died. Lauda Air was a separate airline then, and the crash is far outside our 20-year window. Tyrolean Airways, Austrian's regional subsidiary, flew its own certificate for most of its life and has no fatal or hull-loss record in our data since 2006.

Our rule: an event counts on this page when the flight was operated as Austrian Airlines, including the years when Tyrolean flew Austrian's flights under the Austrian name. Earlier events of separate airlines are described but not counted. Lauda Europe, the Ryanair group airline that flies from Vienna today, has nothing to do with Austrian.

The nearest Austrian came to a crash in recent decades was in January 2004, just before our window: on flight OS111 a Fokker 70 lost power on both engines to ice on approach to Munich and landed in a field. All 32 people survived.

The hail flight in June 2024

On 9 June 2024, flight OS434 from Palma de Mallorca to Vienna, an Airbus A320, was descending over Styria when it flew into a thunderstorm cell. According to the preliminary report of Austria's investigation body SUB, summarised by AeroInside, the captain had left the cockpit for the toilet, and the weather radar showed nothing ahead. Severe hail cracked both windshields and tore away the radome, the nose cone that holds the radar. Airspeed readings failed, the autopilot and autothrust dropped out, and the flight controls fell back to alternate law. The first officer levelled off; the captain came back in and took over, the crew declared a Mayday and landed in Vienna looking through small clear patches of glass. Nobody was hurt.

The questions are not settled. Austro Control said the storm was known and pilots had been warned; the SUB noted that Austrian air traffic control does not show weather on its screens and does not give storm-avoidance advice. Austrian suspended the crew for a week. More than two years on, the SUB had published only its preliminary report, which is why the event weighs on the incidents factor.

Other serious incidents

• 27 October 2017, Salzburg: an Embraer 195 crew started a windshear go-around without pressing the go-around buttons, so the autothrottle kept reducing power and the stall warning sounded. It took 73 seconds to get go-around thrust. The SUB's final report (2021) blamed surprise and startle and deviations from procedures.
• 4 April 2019, Innsbruck: a Dash 8-400 struck its tail on landing after a sudden drop in wind just above the runway; the SUB named low-level windshear as the cause.
• 19 September 2026, Heathrow: an A320neo struck its tail on landing as flight OS333. The UK AAIB classed it as an accident with substantial damage; the investigation is open.

A 2017 loss of separationLoss of separationWhen two aircraft come closer to each other than the minimum distance air traffic rules require. A reported near miss in the UK is called an airprox.More in the glossary between two Austrian aircraft near Vienna was caused by a controller who mixed up left and right, not by the crews. A cluster of fume reports on A320s in late 2023 led to diversions but no findings we could find. We found no safety fines.

How old is the Austrian fleet?

Old at the long-haul end, renewing fast. At the end of 2025 Austrian flew 67 aircraft: 40 Airbus A320-family jets (only five of them neos), 16 Embraers, three Boeing 767-300ERs, six 777-200ERs and two 787-9s. The 767s and 777s are the oldest aircraft in the fleet. Twelve 787-9s will replace them by the winter of 2028/29; the third entered service on 1 June 2026, according to Travel Radar. Six new A320neos are taking over from the Embraers. Austrian does not publish an average age; the Lufthansa Group figure is 14.4 years.

Flying Austrian: what to check

• Pick the 787 on long-haul routes if age matters to you. The booking shows the type; the 767 is the oldest.
• Expect bumpy approaches into Innsbruck and Salzburg. Foehn winds and windshear make go-arounds there routine; keep your belt tight until the aircraft stops.
• Watch for Middle East changes. EASA conflict-zone bulletins for Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon were active in October 2026, and Austrian suspends routes in the region at short notice.

How we scored it

The accident record (94) and EU oversight (92) carry Austrian, the same as Brussels Airlines. The old widebodies (66) and the 2017 to 2026 incidents (77) put it at 86, just below its parent Lufthansa (87) and above Swiss (82).