Last weekend, around 80 winter service employees at Vienna Airport were on almost continuous duty. On Saturday, December 2nd, 2023 alone, around 1.500 truckloads of snow were removed.

Furthermore, almost all aircraft had to be de-iced before takeoff for safety reasons. This is necessary because ice and/or snow on the wings could negatively affect the aerodynamics. In the past, for example, there have been crashes in the USA and Canada due to icy wings that occurred immediately after takeoff.

Vienna-Schwechat Airport explains that around 500 employees are available for winter service – clearance and de-icing. In contrast to other airports, Austria's largest airport managed to maintain flight operations throughout. There were only minimal delays in the form of waiting times for de-icing or a temporarily closed runway because it had just been cleared of snow using large equipment.

“The onset of winter with heavy snowfall, especially on Saturday, also affected Vienna Airport, but thanks to the great commitment of our employees there was hardly any impact on flight operations and the airport was always available. I would like to thank our winter service teams, our aircraft de-icing teams and all the employees who were on duty this weekend for their great performance,” said Julian Jäger, CEO of Flughafen Wien AG.

In order to ensure flight operations in winter conditions, aprons, taxiways and take-off and landing runways with a total area of ​​2,6 million m² must be kept free of snow and ice. On Saturday alone, 1.500 truckloads of snow accumulated and were cleared. Over 80 employees from winter service, de-icing and many other areas were deployed for this purpose. With success: there was hardly any impact on ongoing operations and Vienna Airport was always fully available.

The effort required for this is correspondingly high: the complete clearing of a runway is carried out in a standard formation with 17 vehicles and has to be carried out with just a few centimeters of snow. 75 special vehicles, including several large de-icing vehicles for the take-off and landing runways, blower sweepers for snow removal, and appropriately equipped tractors are available for winter service. Over 440 people are available day and night to clear snow from runways, runways and airport aprons. Another 80 people are available for aircraft de-icing.

In addition to the challenge of keeping runways and taxiways free of snow and ice, de-icing aircraft plays an important role in the safety of air traffic in the cold season. Icing on the wings and fuselage can lead to a stall and thus major problems when controlling an aircraft. The decisive factors are the degree of humidity, outside temperature, temperature of the wings and intensity of precipitation. The agent used by Vienna Airport is completely biodegradable and is channeled via underground drainage systems into collection containers for disposal. The duration of a de-icing process essentially depends on the size of the aircraft and therefore the areas to be de-iced. Larger aircraft are looked after by up to four de-icing vehicles at the same time in order to carry out de-icing as quickly as possible. A total of 14 aircraft de-icing vehicles are available.