Austrian and Lauda have a very similar entertainment programme, although Lauda still insist on giving it a silly name - "Lauda's Flying Wonder World". It has a 1990s style, although it is a modern interactive system, but not with films on demand. However you will get a seatback TV on a long-haul flight on Austrian Airlines.

Headphones the Austrian overhead band type

Shorthaul suprisingly does offer some inflight entertainment, however it is mainly just a few short documentaries, and a "Candid Camera" style programme of little merit. There are however some radio channels which are pretty good.

Longhaul in Lauda there are selectable video screens at all seats (except for the 767 model LAU). However suprisingly Austrian only has seatback videos in business - in economy there are none even on the A340 (and the airline has no plans to add them). For the cheap seats there are just drop down LCD video screens (or on the 767s a projector at the front of the cabin), which shows 2 films in sequence (3 to Japan).

Lauda make much of the fact that their seats have individual screens (with a dual English (odd channels) and German (even channels) soundtrack) as well as an overhead projector at the front of the cabin, although most other airlines, like Singapore and Lufthansa, offer much more with interactives film you can stop and rewind at each seat.

Headphones the Lauda sit in the ear type

Business Class in Lauda has a seatback video on an extendible arm with a width of 6.5 inches, with 8 video channels including 5 films and 12 music channels, plus 10 computer games. There is a telephone, which can also send (but not receive) SMS, and a laptop power point.

Lauda inflight games

Economy Class in Lauda has a seatback video with a width of 4 inches, and the same video choices as business. There is a telephone at the front of the cabin.

Film selection is decidedly sparse, with one current (Austrian release) blockbuster, three recurrent films, one children's movie, a German language film, and a nature documentary channel (not available on the 767s), and the usual channel with a map. It sometimes takes the crew a long time to switch on the films after takeoff. On take off and landing in the A340s and 777s there is a camera in the nose of the plane. Some films (normally the blockbusters) run as duplicates on twin channels, starting an hour apart - at least giving some element of a film on demand. This feature is not advertised - to spot these films, look for the four audio channels listed in the magazine.

Lauda the Flying WonderWorld

All classes use the same headphones. On Austrian you get proper overhead band headphones, while Lauda has small poor quality ones, which clip in the ear, and a twin 3.5mm jack plug. Audio quality is dreadful. However on many Lauda flights, the better Austrian style headphones are carried for business class.

For "Lauda's Flying Wonder World" it starts with a short film showing how to use it - alas it is just in German. You can either use it as a normal seatback video, and just change the channel, or go into the interactive screens (press Mode). This gets you to some fairly confusing menus which are very inconsistent (press Red to get back to the main menu), but which do get you to section detailing the life of Nikki Lauda, the destinations the planes used to fly to, a news section, the nosewheel and landing cameras, and several games. There is a good, but slow, Pacman imitation.

Austrian skylines Magazine

Lauda's video system is alas getting very old and tired, and the tracking on many films is very poor. Some just won't play at all, and the crew substitute alternative films without warning. The system should also allow you to gamble online from 35,000 feet - alas this is normally broken. There is also a major operation flaw - at a month change in the calendar, if the plane is in Australia on the first of the month, the inflight magazine will change, and so do the interactive film listings. However the tapes stay the same until the plane reaches Austria, so you have no idea what you are watching.