Austrian Airlines Group, Austria's only airline group, holds Austrian Airlines and Lauda Air of with very different origins and opposite fleet selection (almost all Airbus for Austrian and all Boeing for Lauda), and Tyrolean which flies only European services with regional aircrafts.

Austrian was started in 1957. Because of the neutral nature of Austria, there are many Austrian flights flying to East and West Europe, thus making it a good way connecting both the East and the West. This and excellent service of Austrian especially in cabin design and catering makes Austrian large and profitable.

Austaian decided to change its fleet to full Airbus since early 1990's, with delivery of A330 and A340.

Tyrolean was started in 1958 as Aircraft Innsbruck operating charter flights, and has scheduled flights only since 1980, flying only European destinations with only turboprops until being purchased by Austrian in 1994.

Lauda Air was started by famous F1 driver Nikki Lauda in 1979, and started its lide by non-scheduled flights formerly operated by defuct airline, Lapair.

1989 was a great year for Lauda, as Lauda flies scheduled flights to Sydney since then, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore, thus making it the 1st Austrian airline to fly to Asia other than Tokyo (Austrian airlines' only Asian destination.) It then opened flights to Bangkok and Phuket in mid-1990's. It cooperates with Lufthansa for European flights, thus paving the way for being purchased by another Star Alliance member, Austrian Airlines.

Lauda has excellent reputation for high quality service, especially for foods made my Austrian top chefs, and provision of in flight chefs. Its flight attendants are in Diesel jeans, making it unique in the world.

Austrian Airlines is very agreesive on purchasing other airlines since 1994. It takes 42% of share in Tyrolean in 1994, with regional jets added. Austrian increased its shres in Tyrolean to 85.7% on 12 Dec 1997, and 100% on 23 Mar 1999.

Austrian took over 100% of Rheintalflug shares on 15 Feb 2001, and integrated into Tyrolean since 1 Oct 2002.

Austrian also takes share of 36% in Lauda Air on 12 Mar 1997, increased to 54.6% on 31 Jan 2001, thus making Lauda a Star Alliance (the alliance Austrian Airlines joins since 26 Mar 2000) member instaed of Qualiflyer since then, and hence saved Lauda from closure when Swissair, the leader of Qualiflyer, is collapsed in Oct 2001. Austrian further increased its shares in Lauda to 99% on 14 Nov 2001 and 100% on 6 Jun 2002. This makes Austrian Airlines Group the only shareholder of all Austrian carriers since then.

What would be the future of Austrian Airlines Group? Would Lauda introduce its first Airbuses? Or even integrated into Austrian Airlines like that of Tyrolean and Rheintalflug?