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John Dundas · Guest

November 26, 2003
http://news.airwise.com/stories/2003/11/1069869707.html

A new low-cost airline run and majority-owned by three times Formula One
motor racing champion Niki Lauda will take to the skies on Friday, with two
planes flying out of Vienna and Salzburg, both six times a week.

This is the latest in a series of sport and business comebacks for Lauda who
launched an eponymous charter airline in 1979 and sold it in 2000. He is
considered one of the all-time greats of motor racing.

"We will add another two airlines for summer, starting in April," he told a
news conference in Helsinki to announce the airline will be using Finnish
flag carrier Finnair's flight simulators.

Lauda declined to say how large his stake is in the firm, previously the
Austrian arm of bankrupt German charter carrier Aero Lloyd which flew
passengers for travel firms TUI and Thomas Cook.

Lauda has said he is personally putting up EUR4 million (USD$4.71 million)
as start-up capital in the airline, yet to be named, which will fly to
leisure destinations like the Canary Islands, Egypt and Turkey.

(Reuters)