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Austrian Airlines

Austrian flag carrier airline

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ781770 ↗
Source-derived summary

Austrian Airlines (often shortened to Austrian or AUA) is the flag carrier of Austria and a subsidiary of Lufthansa, the flag carrier of Germany. The airline is headquartered on the grounds of Vienna International Airport in Schwechat, Austria, where it also maintains its hub. As of September 2026, the airline operates an average of around 320 daily flights to and from more than 120 destinations. It is a member of Star Alliance.

Air Austria and Austrian Airways merged to form the airline in 1957, but its history dates back to the founding of Austrian Airways in 1923. Throughout much of the company's existence, it was a state-owned entity. On 31 March 1958, the airline performed its scheduled service, flying a leased Vickers Viscount from Vienna to Zürich and London; it subsequently purchased its own Viscount fleet. On 18 February 1963, Austrian ordered its first jet-powered airliner, the Sud Aviation Caravelle. It subsequently introduced various models and derivatives of the Douglas DC-9 jetliner; by the end of 1971, Austrian was an all-jet operator. During the 1980s, it introduced the DC-9-80, otherwise known as the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, to its fleet.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Austrian Airlines” is austrian flag carrier airline. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Austrian, Airlines and flag, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2026, 1957, 1923, 1958—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1957-09-30. For this dossier, Austrian, Airlines and flag is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “austrian flag carrier airline” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q781770. VIAF identifies the subject as 226456844. Authority coordinates are 48.121, 16.559. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2026, 1957, 1923 and 1958.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Austrian Airlines”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Austrian Airlines primary sources, Austrian Airlines archive and Austrian research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Austrian Airlines”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Austrian Airlines” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.