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#1 Austrian Airlines, Vienna, and I have replied in every Lufthansa Group thread as 'the third hub' without writing Austrian itself. Here it is, for the German speakers comparing the three and for the Central Europeans for whom Vienna is the nearest legacy carrier.
The airline
Austrian, the Lufthansa Group's Austrian carrier, Vienna Schwechat as the single hub, a fleet of A320 family, Embraers, 777s and 787s, a network heavy on Eastern Europe (Austrian is the group's gateway to the east: Bucharest, Sofia, Belgrade, Kyiv when it flew, Tbilisi, Yerevan, the Balkans, the Baltics), Western Europe, the Middle East, and a long haul to North America (New York, Chicago, Washington, Toronto), Asia (Bangkok, Tokyo, Shanghai) and a few others.
The collective agreement
The Austrian cabin crew collective agreement (the Kollektivvertrag), negotiated by the vida union, public, with the Austrian employment law and the works council (the Betriebsrat) that Felix described for Lufthansa in the Austrian form. Pay in euros below the Lufthansa mainline and the SWISS scales, with the Austrian social system and the lower Vienna cost of living partly compensating.
The Vienna base
Schwechat, 20 minutes from the city by train, the crew living in the city's outer districts or the towns on the airport line. Vienna is cheaper than Zurich and Munich and lovelier than either, with a quality of life the crew from the other hubs envy on the layover. The crew room is Austrian, which is German with a different rhythm and a specific humour, and the foreign crew learn it.
The Eastern Europe network from the galley
The thing that makes Austrian different: the short sectors to the eastern capitals, the passengers from across Central and Eastern Europe, the languages in the cabin (the Austrian crew include a lot of Central Europeans with Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Romanian, Serbian), and a specialism in the region that the group values. The eastern crew at Austrian are the regional experts.
The long haul
Smaller than Lufthansa's and faster to reach: the seniority list is shorter and the long haul course comes around year two for most. The New York and Bangkok and Tokyo layovers are the same as the other hubs' with a smaller crew group. Austrian long haul is a real long haul career with a faster start.
The comparison, properly
Lufthansa: the biggest, the slowest, the highest German scale. SWISS: the francs, the Zurich cost, the faster promotion. Austrian: the lowest pay of the three, the cheapest and nicest city, the eastern network, the long haul at year two, the Austrian agreement. For a German speaker who wants a legacy carrier and a life in a city they can afford, Vienna is the honest third option and the one the other two hubs' crew visit on their days off.
For applicants
German fluent, English tested, a Central or Eastern European language a real advantage, EU right to work, and the Austrian assessment, which is the calm Lufthansa Group type with a Viennese politeness. Austrian hires in rounds and the rounds follow the fleet, which is growing on the 787s.
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#2 Lufthansa Munich, and Max has been the third hub in every thread and now the third hub has a thread. The long haul at year two is the Austrian advantage that Munich crew do not admit to envying. Vienna is the city we visit on days off, as he says.
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#3 SWISS Zurich, and the three hub comparison is now complete across three threads. Austrian: the lowest pay, the best city, the eastern network. Fair, and the Vienna crew are the happiest of the three on the layover.
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#4 Prague, and Vienna is the nearest legacy carrier for the Czechs and Slovaks and the Central European language advantage is real: the Austrian cabins are full of us. Max has written the eastern crew's airline.
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#5 Wizz Budapest, and the Austrian route from Vienna to Budapest is 40 minutes and the Austrian crew on it are Hungarian half the time. The eastern network is staffed by the east. The Wizz crew who want a legacy carrier look at Vienna first.
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#6 Hamburg, applying across the group, and Austrian was the hub I had not considered. The long haul at year two and the Vienna rent are the two numbers that change the comparison. Fourth application in the group.
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#7 Smartwings Prague, and the Austrian cabins being the eastern experts is what we see from the Vienna apron: the crew who know Bucharest and Belgrade. The Czech charter crews who want a legacy carrier go to Vienna. Max's airline is the regional door.
