Austrian vs Azores Airlines
Austrian scores 8.3/10 against Azores Airlines at 5.8/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare.
By Jon Miksis · cabin data verified · fares for travel November 8–14, 2026
Best product each one flies
Scored on what can be verified. Service, food and ground recovery are absent deliberately: they need someone in the seat, and they live in the reviews rather than here.
One caveat on the Value line, stated rather than buried: Value is computed from business fares, and a carrier with too few of them does not get a Value score at all. Where you see a dash, we have fewer than three priced business routes for that airline and did not want to invent a figure from one or two — so its product score is the mean of three dimensions rather than four, and it is not directly comparable to a score built on hundreds of fares. The airlines with the most fares behind them are named on the business-class ranking, and where each of these two sits among every carrier we price, on seat and on fare, is on The Best Airlines to Fly to Europe.
Austrian
787-9
- Seat
- 8/10
- IFE
- 8/10
- Lounge & bags
- 10/10
- Value
- 7/10
- Product score
- 8.3/10
Azores Airlines
A321neo / A321LR · flown by Jon
- Seat
- 0/10
- IFE
- 8/10
- Lounge & bags
- 5/10
- Value
- 10/10
- Product score
- 5.8/10
Where they actually differ
Seat: Austrian
8/10 on the 787-9 against 0/10 on the A321neo / A321LR.
Lounge & bags: Austrian
What the fare includes before you board: 10/10 against 5/10.
Value: Azores Airlines
Median premium over the cheapest carrier on the same route: 7/10 against 10/10.
Level on IFE
As almost every pair is. Of the 31 business cabins we have verified, 28 score 8 on screens and power and 29 score 10 on lounge and bags — because those two dimensions describe what a business fare includes rather than which airline sold it to you. Lounge access, two checked bags and a carry-on are close to the definition of the cabin.
The one genuine differentiator on screens is free wifi, and only Delta and JetBlue offer it. Seat and Value are where carriers separate, which is why they lead this page.
What happens if the aircraft swaps
Both carriers are paying-the-same-fare-either-way propositions on some frames. The worst product each one flies:
Austrian
777-200ER
- Seat
- 5/10
- IFE
- 8/10
- Lounge & bags
- 10/10
- Value
- 7/10
- Product score
- 7.5/10
Azores Airlines
A321neo / A321LR · flown by Jon
- Seat
- 0/10
- IFE
- 8/10
- Lounge & bags
- 5/10
- Value
- 10/10
- Product score
- 5.8/10
Austrian: Thompson Vantage in alternating 1-2-1 and 2-2-2 rows. Recorded as no direct aisle access because the field means every seat, and here it is row-dependent.
Azores Airlines: Comfort Class is a wide 2-2 recliner, not a lie-flat business seat. The airline states about 40 degrees of recline; it is closer to US domestic first than to a transatlantic bed, and the sub-five-hour Azores sector is what it is built for.
Common questions
- Is Austrian or Azores Airlines better to Europe?
- Austrian scores 8.3/10 against Azores Airlines at 5.8/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare. On the four dimensions we can verify, Austrian wins 2 and Azores Airlines wins 1. Service and food are not scored here because they cannot be read off a spec sheet.
- Does the aircraft change the answer?
- Yes. Austrian scores 8/10 on the 787-9 and 5/10 on the 777-200ER. Check the equipment on your date before deciding.
- Has Jon flown either of these?
- Azores Airlines, in business on a Europe route. Austrian has not been flown, so nothing here claims firsthand experience of its cabin.
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