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Former Austrian Formula One champion Niki Lauda is pictured here posing during the presentation of the first 190 Embraer Jet delivered to the Austrian airline Niki, at the Brazilian Aeronautic Company in May 2009. Photo by EPA/BGNES
As the brand of Austrian-based low-cost carrier FlyNiki is disappearing, the company has announced it is about to stop flying Sofia-Vienna.
The airline will carry out its last flight from Sofia airport to Vienna on January 27, at 5.55 pm.
On the very next day an Air Berlin plane will take off Berlin's Tegel Airport to land at Sofia new terminal at 6.30 pm.
The flights to the German capital will be serviced seven times a week, replacing FlyNiki's eighteen flights per week to Vienna.
FlyNiki airline has been owned by Air Berlin since 8 November 2011 and has 650 people working for them of which around 90% are employed through Labourpool Gmbh, a personnel leasing company.
By November 2011 NIKI was already offering three Sofia-Vienna and three Vienna-Sofia flights daily, which, according to the company, were at more convenient hours for both tourists and business travelers.
Flyniki started flying to Sofia in February, 2010. From Vienna passengers could switch to other destinations – including Munich, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Paris and Zurich - benefiting from the network of FlyNiki and its partner Air Berlin.
FlyNiki was an airline owned and run by Niki Lauda. After being ousted from Lauda Air by boardroom politics in November 2000, in late 2003 Niki Lauda bought some planes from a German airline that had gone bankrupt and started FlyNiki. It operated as a budget airline mainly from Germany and Austria.
At the beginning of 2013 FlyNiki founder Niki Lauda left the Air Berlin board to devote more time to his role as chairman of the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
Industry veteran and former British Midland International CEO Austin Reid succeeded Lauda as of January 2013.
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