Last year was very successful for Vienna Airport. Passenger volumes reached an all-time high with 24.4 million travellers passing through its doors. This year, it looks set to continue its passenger growth with numerous new developments for its summer schedule.
Flight programme developments
The low-cost carrier Wizz Air will commence operations at Vienna Airport in the course of 2018 and will serve 22 destinations in total. It will also permanently station three aircraft at the airport.
Wizz Air launched flight in April 2018 to Danzig, Tuzla and Varna. This will be followed by flight connections to Cluj, Bari, Malta, Rome, Tel Aviv, Valencia, Eindhoven and Malaga. With its winter schedule, the airline will also offer flights to Bergen, Billund, Dortmund, Kutaisi, Larnaca, Nis, Ohrid, Tenerife, Kharkov, Kiev and Thessaloniki.
In the new summer schedule, Austria’s home carrier, Austrian Airlines, inaugurated direct flights to Narita International Airport, Tokyo, on a seasonal basis. Moreover, it increased frequencies to numerous destinations, including Tel Aviv, Venice, Larnaca, Dubrovnik, Berlin Tegel Airport and Düsseldorf.
The low-cost carrier Eurowings also expanded its seasonal flight programme as of March 2018, and now operates to Catania, Chania, Heraklion, Corfu, Kos, Rhodes and Larnaca.
More routes, better travel
The Taiwanese airline EVA Air has been offering direct flights from Vienna to Taipei since 10 March 2018. Thanks to the existing four flights to Taipei, with a stop in Bangkok, the airline now offers daily flights to the Taiwenese metropolis.
Other developments include China Airlines’ expanded flights to Taipei, now occurring five times a week, Air India’s increased flights to Delhi, occurring four times a week, and daily flights to Addis Ababa with Ethiopian Airlines. Also in June, FlyNas starts a new connection to Riyadh and Saudia starts with flights to Jeddah via Riyadh.
The British carrier easyJet has operated from Vienna to Berlin Tegel Airport since January (up to six times a day) and, as of its summer schedule, also started flight connections to Milano Malpensa Airport and Basel. In addition, Volotea operates flights to Bilbao – a new route from Vienna.
The new airline Laudamotion will start services to nine destinations as of June – Malaga, Brindisi, Chania, Ibiza, Thira, Kalamata, Paphos, Palma de Mallorca and Pisa. Vueling flies to Palma de Mallorca and will also expand its existing flight programme to Barcelona and Rome.
As of 28 May 2018, Stobart Air/Flybe increased frequencies on its Vienna to London Southend Airport route. Aer Lingus is raising the number of weekly flights to Dublin, and Aegean Airlines is also offering additional flights to Athens. Iberia is adding capacity to its service from Madrid to Vienna, and will offer 19 weekly connections.
Norwegian is expanding its existing offering to Oslo, and Nordica will serve the Tallinn-Vienna route on a daily basis in the summer timetable. SunExpress is also increasing frequencies to Antalya and will thus offer up to 18 weekly flights in the summer peak.
Starting in October 2018, Hainan Airlines will inaugurate a new long-haul route connecting Vienna with Shenzhen in China, and Thai Airways expanded its operation from Bangkok to Vienna to five weekly services in April.
