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FRANKFURT, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Austrian Airlines, owned by
Germany's Lufthansa, plans to lay off around 500 staff
as part of efforts to reduce annual costs by about 100 million
euros ($112 million), a person familiar with the plan said on
Monday.
The carrier has faced increasingly stiff competition from
low-cost carriers including easyJet, Wizz Air
and Ryanair's Laudamotion on short-haul routes out of
its base, Vienna.
The plan to reduce costs is due to be officially announced
on Thursday, when Lufthansa publishes its third-quarter results.
Austrian Airlines declined to comment.
Austrian media reported the cost-cutting plan last week.
Austrian Airlines now has just over 7,000 employees, roughly
1,200 more than after the last round of job cuts in 2012.
($1 = 0.8967 euros)
(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach; Additional reporting by Kirsti
Knolle in Vienna; Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Edmund
Blair)
