The Austrian airports had a total of around 2023 million passengers in 33,2. This means that the airports were able to increase by 25,3 percent compared to the previous period and have reached 92,1 percent of the traffic volume that they had before the corona pandemic. The lion's share of passengers went to Vienna-Schwechat.

“After the pandemic lull, the number of passengers in Austrian air traffic has been increasing steadily since 2021. The Austrian airports are once again the lifelines in the respective economic and tourism region, thousands of jobs have been created. But we now have to stay on course and continue to assert ourselves in tough international competition. We must absolutely avoid a situation like in Germany, where the industry's wings were clipped and strikes are now paralyzing traffic. “Austrian aviation must remain at the top, for this we need the best framework conditions,” said Julian Jäger, President of the Association of Austrian Airports (AÖV) and board member of Flughafen Wien AG, rejecting calls for a ban on short-haul flights or additional burdens on air traffic.

A total of around 2023 million passengers were counted at all six commercial airports in Austria (Graz, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, Linz, Salzburg and Vienna) in 33.174.074, which is 25,3 percent more than in the previous year. The number of flight movements in scheduled and occasional flights increased by 259.006 percent compared to the previous year, with 16,8 take-offs and landings. The average utilization of aircraft (seat load factor) has also increased to a total of 78,9 percent, which means an improvement of 3,5 percentage points compared to 2022. Freight volume was 318.182 tons in 2023 (-4,3 percent compared to 2022).

Passenger increases at all six commercial airports

The number of passengers at Vienna Airport increased from 23.682.133 in 2022 to 29.533.186 in 2023 (+25,3 percent). Passenger numbers at Salzburg Airport increased by 15,7 percent to 1.614.601 passengers. At Innsbruck Airport the number of passengers increased to 906.655 passengers in 2023 (+25,7 percent). At Graz Airport, the number of passengers was 733.146 percent higher than in the previous year at 30,6 passengers. Linz Airport recorded a passenger increase of 12,1 percent to 232.950 air travelers in 2023 and at Klagenfurt Airport the number of passengers rose by 85,5 percent to 153.536 people.

Steady increases in flight movements

The number of flight movements increased at all Austrian airports with the exception of Linz in 2023. In Vienna the number of takeoffs and landings rose by 17,3 percent to 221.095 and in Salzburg by 15,7 percent to 13.916 movements. Graz Airport recorded an increase of 12,2 percent to 9.655 and Innsbruck Airport an increase of 17,3 percent to 8.740 take-offs and landings. At Linz Airport, flight movements fell by 3,5 percent to 3.889 and at Klagenfurt Airport, flight movements increased to 1.848 (+39.2 percent).

“For the federal state airports, 2023 was a further step towards normality. The big challenge for the airports in the federal states is to remain connected to large hub airports in addition to the tourist flight connections. This is the only way to ensure the connectivity of the regions and economic areas,” says Norbert Draskovits, Vice President of AÖV and Managing Director of Flughafen Linz GesmbH.