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Austrian Airlines recently announced a genuine upgrade on its medium-haul flights: real business class seats. But the picture they used to accompany their public relations blitz (above) is taking the term “illustration” a bit literally. Couldn’t they take a real photo?!

That said, it’s actually a meaningful change for Austrian to put these seats in their Airbus A320s. After all, the majority of “business class” seating on single-aisle flights in Europe involves just adjustable armrests in a regular row of coach seating. That means there’s no center seat, but it’s not a “real” business class seat.

So by offering a real business class seat on shorter routes — albeit a cradle seat, not a top-of-the-line lie-flat seat — Austrian is kicking things up a notch. It’s a small scale, but if it works, it could signal the start of a new trend in Euro-travel.

The new seats will be put into a whopping four planes in the fleet by September 2008, which will cover flights from Vienna to Damascus, Cairo, Tehran, Dubai, and Astana. (Astana? Borat demands a cradle seat!)

Now if only they could get their art department involved.

(Thanks, Benet!)