Niki (airline)

Updated on Jan 15, 2024

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HG NLY Fleet size 16 Founder Niki Lauda Alliance Oneworld (affiliate)		NLY FLYNIKI Destinations 20 Founded 2003 Parent organization Air Berlin

Frequent-flyer program topbonus (from Air Berlin) Company slogan The Passenger Comes First Headquarters Vienna International Airport, Austria Hub Vienna International Airport

Niki (also styled as NIKI or flyNiki, legally NIKI Luftfahrt GmbH) is an Austrian low-cost airline headquartered in Office Park I at Vienna International Airport in Schwechat. It operates scheduled and charter services to European and North African leisure destinations from Vienna, Salzburg, Graz and Innsbruck and will also start services from several German airports from March 2017.

Early years

In 2003 Niki Lauda, ex-Grand Prix driver and founder of Lauda Air, acquired the former Aero Lloyd Austria operation. The airline started operations on 28 November 2003.

Although Niki is often described as "low-cost", it provides full service, such as free refreshments, newspapers and baggage. It offers a sandwich or a cold snack, soft drinks, tea and coffee on all short-haul flights as well as on charter routes to Greece, Tunisia and Turkey. On mid-haul charter flights to the Canary Islands and Egypt all passengers are offered a warm snack. Also, gourmet menus from Demel can be ordered before the flight. There is also a buy on board service.

Development as an Air Berlin subsidiary

On 9 January 2004, Niki announced cooperation with Air Berlin. In late 2011, Niki merged completely with Air Berlin, sharing operations, booking systems and aircraft. On 20 March 2012, Niki became an "affiliate member" of Oneworld as a subsidiary company of Air Berlin. Since late 2012, Niki successively repaints their aircraft in the Air Berlin paint scheme, using the Niki logo only at the nose. The new paint scheme was applied during regular C checks.

In October 2014, Niki announced the cancellation of their flights from Vienna to Copenhagen, Moscow and Frankfurt due to decreasing demand. In exchange, new leisure routes will be started by summer 2015. Also in spring 2015, Niki started to replace its fleet of Embraer 190s with Airbus A319-100s from its parent, Air Berlin, with the used Embraers being transferred to Helvetic Airways.

Sale to Etihad Airways

On 5 December 2016, parent company Air Berlin announced plans to sell its entire 49 percent stake in Niki to its own minority owner Etihad Airways. Etihad Airways itself will merge Niki into a new joint-venture to be created with the German leisure carrier TUIfly. At the same time, Niki and Air Berlin will exchange several aircraft to harmonize each fleet. It has also been announced that Niki will take over several routes to southern European, north African and Turkish leisure destinations from Air Berlin as part of the new joint-venture. The deal still requires official approval.

Also in December 2016, Niki announced the termination of its only medium-haul route, from Vienna to Abu Dhabi, Etihad's home base, by March 2017. Niki later also announced it plans to terminate all of its 12 routes from Vienna to non-leisure destinations such as Milan or Zürich by 30 January 2017. In January 2017, it was also announced that Niki will cease all operations to and from Linz Airport at short notice due to the restructuring measures. The announcement was made after the 2017 schedule had already been made available for booking. For the 2017 season, Niki reduced the number of flights from Austria to 56 flights a week to 20 destinations, compared to 34 destinations in 2016.

Shortly after, it was announced that Niki will take over several Air Berlin leisure routes to and from Germany. It also has been announced that Niki's fleet will be switched over to Airbus A321s only while the smaller A319s and A320s are handed to Air Berlin.

Destinations

Niki operates scheduled and charter services to destinations to several countries in Europe - charter services are especially operated to Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Morocco - from Vienna, Salzburg, Graz and Innsbruck. The flights are also marketed by its former parent and now minority shareholder Air Berlin.