A new terminal and additional links to Asia and the Gulf region are helping Vienna Airport increase its throughput. Tony Dixon finds out what’s supporting and driving the growth.
Austria is in the centre of an enlarged European Union and its position makes Vienna International Airport (VIE) – Flughafen Wien – a strategically important hub for connecting the western and eastern sides of the continent.
It’s also well placed to support transfers to an increasing number of destinations in Asia and the Middle East, and in 2015 handled 22.85m passengers – up 1.3% on 2014.
The airfield is in Schwechat, 11 miles (18 km) southeast of Vienna and only 35 miles (57km) west of Bratislava, the capital of neighbouring Slovakia, enabling it to provide air transport services to residents of, and visitors to, both countries.
The biggest and busiest airport in Austria, VIE is the base for Austrian Airlines and Niki, a low-fare subsidiary of airberlin. It can handle widebodies up to the Airbus A380, and has a dense network of European destinations as well as offering long-haul flights to Asia, North America and Africa, recording 226,811 aircraft movements in 2015.
Central Terminal Area
There are effectively four terminals i…
