As part of the state aid for Austrian, it was agreed that short-haul flights to Vienna should be relocated to the AIRail offer of ÖBB as soon as this is feasible through improved rail infrastructure. In addition to Linz and Salzburg, this will affect other federal states as well as border destinations such as Prague and Budapest.
"As soon as the railway infrastructure becomes competitive, the supply of passengers from the vicinity of our Vienna hub will be the future", quoted the specialist portal ch-aviation AUA sales director Andreas Otto. As part of the 600 million euro state aid, an agreement was reached with the government that those short-haul destinations that can be reached by train from Vienna Airport in up to 3 hours will gradually be added to the AIRail offer. The prerequisite for this is that the measures already taken to improve the infrastructural railway networks are completed or implemented in the foreseeable future. Otto sees that this represents a setback for the regional airports to lose their connection to Vienna by air, and that there is also massive criticism from the respective regional politicians, but points out: “Not only the passengers benefit from it, but of course they too Environment". Commercial considerations behind this, however, should not be dismissed out of hand.
The expensive Linz-Vienna short-haul route was completely shifted to the AIRail offer a few years ago and was able to boast significant growth before the Corona crisis. Likewise, the domestic connection to Salzburg, which was not profitable for Austrian, has meanwhile been canceled, and passengers can now use train connections several times a day between Vienna Airport and Salzburg Central Station. With the completion of the infrastructure projects around the Semmering base tunnel and the Koralmbahn, those Vienna connections from Graz and Klagenfurt should also be shifted to rail in the foreseeable future. However, the focus is also on destinations close to the border, such as Bratislava, Budapest and Prague. These should also be added to the AIRail offer as soon as there is a corresponding rail offer, which also guarantees corresponding transfer times at Vienna Airport.