The corona pandemic colors the numbers of the listed airport operator dark red: At Vienna Airport, the number of passengers from January to September 2020 fell by 70,7 percent to just under seven million. The number of flight movements shrank in the first nine months of this year by more than 60 percent to 80.580 take-offs and landings, the average load factor from 77,5 to 59,5 percent.

The Covid 19 crisis is also sending the business figures down, sales are idle. Flughafen Wien AG earned just 277 million euros in the observation period, around 57 percent less than before. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) sank by more than 80 percent to 62,3 million euros and the operating result (Ebit) turned into the red to minus 43,6 million euros. In addition, net debt has also turned negative and sometimes more than doubled (162 million euros). The net loss is probably higher than expected: The airport is heading for a minus of 75 to 85 million euros before minorities.

In the long term, the company has "secured liquidity that guarantees sufficient financing for all foreseeable crisis scenarios," the broadcast said. The airport will need this too. Because the prospects look anything but rosy. In October, only 378.107 travelers were handled; the number of passengers is currently well below 20 percent of the previous year. "For 2020 as a whole, we expect between 7,6 million and 7,8 million passengers at the Vienna location," said Julian Jäger, CEO of Flughafen Wien AG.

The hope lies in rapid tests

"One possible way out of the crisis are antigen rapid tests: The trial run running jointly with Austrian Airlines is very successful and shows that it is possible to integrate Covid-19 rapid tests well into the travel process. In order to get the economy and tourism going again, a Europe-wide coordinated test strategy with extensive use of these test procedures is urgently needed, ”said Jäger. The current announcements about vaccines would also make people happy and give cause for hope.