Austrian Airlines ( Österreichische Luftverkehrs AG ) ( IATA : OS , ICAO : AUA ) is the airline ‘s flagship Austria , with its headquarters in Schwechat , Vienna-Umgebung . Its main base is Vienna International Airport .The airline was founded on September 30 of 1957 , making his first flight on March 18 of 1958 , when a Vickers Viscount 779 took off from Vienna bound for London , United Kingdom . Austrian Airlines was created by the merger of Air Austria and Austrian Airways. The transatlantic services began on 1 April 1969 with a service between Vienna and New York with a stopover in Brussels , in cooperation with Sabena .
Austrian Airlines was owned by Österreichische Industrieholding AG (39.7%), other investors (43.5%), institutional investors in Austria (10.3%) and Air France (1.5%). In 2009 Lufthansa bought the part of the Österreichische Industrieholding AG (39.7%) and then also from other investors at the beginning of 2010. Also owns 100% of the airline subsidiary Austrian Arrows and Lauda Air , and has a 62% stake in Slovak Airlines and 22.5% stake in Ukraine International Airlines . On 1 October 2004 Air Operations Departments of Austrian Airlines and Lauda Air were merged into a single department, leaving only the name Lauda Air for charter flights . It has 8.468 employees.