Lufthansa Group’s Austrian Airlines has begun phasing out its Embraer 195 regional jets, transferring an initial aircraft to Italian sister carrier Air Dolomiti.
Austrian is modernising and simplifying its fleet and, instead of its 17 E195s, will introduce six more Airbus A320neos – each configured with 180 seats – the first of which will arrive in summer next year.
The E195 phase-out is part of a broader programme to reduce the diversity of Austrian’s fleet, reducing it essentially to two models, the A320 family and the Boeing 787.
Austrian started introducing 787-9s last year, and will build on the current two aircraft with a further 10 by the end of 2028.
These will replace the airline’s Boeing 777-200ERs and 767-300ERs.
All the E195s will similarly be withdrawn by the end of 2028, with the second set to leave the fleet in February 2026.
Thirteen of them will be transferred to Air Dolomiti. Austrian says the other four will be “sold externally”. This process will start at the beginning of next year.
Austrian began operating the 120-seat E195s almost exactly a decade ago.
Chief operating officer Stefan-Kenan Scheib says the type has “served us well and provided important services for many years”.
The first jet sent to Air Dolomiti is MSN542 (OE-LWM), which has been re-registered as I-ENJA. It was flown from Vienna to Verona on 12 December.
Austrian will expand its Airbus fleet at the Vienna base to 46.
