Vienna airport recorded a 7% increase in the amount of passengers last year. New runway and new long distance destinations are planned to open in 2012, which however should be a challenging year.
Vienna International Airport, the biggest and busiest airport in Austria, released its 2011 statistics showing an increase of 7% in the number of passengers. In total 21 million travelers checked in at the airport last year.
The airport’s representatives emphasized especially the rise of 4% in the amount of travelers heading to the Middle East. Even better results were recorded regarding the Eastern Europe (+15%) and Western Europe (+7%). The biggest number of passengers flew to Frankfurt (540,000), London (450,000) and Zurich (430,000).
In 2012 the airport plans to finish its third runway, which should make the traffic more effective. Another important change planned for this year is launching the system of Skylink trains, which will serve passengers connecting between flights.
Julian Jäger and Günther Ofner, the airport directors, also announced their intention of further developing the long distance traffic. Currently, Vienna airport serves only 14 long distance destination. Among the new destinations is for instance Varadero in Cuba. The route should be open in winter 2012/13.
The end of ticket taxes was also emphasized by the airport representatives as a significant factor affecting the amount of people opting for air transport this year.
Mr. Jäger however noted that they do not have only positive expectations this year. The airport needs to face rising costs caused mainly by the fuel prices and new taxes. This year Mr. Jäger expects only slight growth of traffic not exceeding 1%.
In order to cut the budget the airport had to reduce the amount for their investment program from EUR 650 million to EUR 590 million until 2015.