After a first quarter with very few passengers due to the pandemic, Vienna Airport only really got going afterwards. The bottom line is that the crisis year 202 ended with 10,4 million passengers, a drop of 67,1 percent compared to the pre-crisis level in 2019.

So there is still a lot of room for improvement. Compared to 2019, both the passenger volume in transfer traffic (-65,0 percent) and the number of local passengers (-67,7 percent) have fallen. The number of take-offs and landings fell by 58,2 percent and the seat utilization (seat load factor) fell by 14,8 percent to 62,5 percent. The volume of freight also recorded a minus in 2021, but this is not nearly as serious as in the case of passenger numbers (-7,9 percent).

The international holdings of the Flughafen Wien Group were also still severely affected by the Covid 2021 pandemic in 19: Malta Airport recorded 2021 passengers in 2.540.335, a drop of 65,2 percent compared to 2019. Kosice Airport recorded 166.515 passengers in 2021, a drop of 70,0 percent compared to 2019.

“Aviation is slowly coming back: in 2021, with 10,4 million passengers in Vienna, we recorded a third more than in the first Corona year 2020. The first few months of this year will still be very challenging, but we can expect that with the start of the summer flight schedule at the end of March 2022 we are seeing a significant upswing in passenger numbers,” says Julian Jäger, CEO of Flughafen Wien AG. From the current perspective, the airport is expecting around 2022 million passengers in 17 as a whole, a significant increase compared to 2021, Jäger continues. From today's perspective, it will also be possible to reopen the redesigned Terminal 2 before the summer months.

2022 should bring the turnaround

Those responsible at Vienna Airport are pretty sure that the new year will bring an upswing. Nevertheless, the situation would remain challenging: While the first three to six months will still be weak from today's perspective, a significant increase in passengers is expected from the summer and in the second half of the year. Vienna International Airport expects around 17 million travelers in 2022 as a whole and around 21 million travelers for the Flughafen Wien Group (including holdings). Financially things should also go uphill in the new year. From today's perspective, sales of around EUR 2022 million, a positive EBITDA of at least EUR 560 million and a positive annual result of at least EUR 172 million are expected for 20. The company's net debt is expected to fall below EUR 50 million, according to the airport.

Traffic development December 2021: Slight upward trend continues

The slight upward trend in passenger development continued at the end of the year: In December 2021, the Flughafen Wien Group (Vienna Airport, Malta Airport and Kosice Airport) recorded 1.192.856 passengers, around four times as many as in December of the previous year. Compared to the pre-crisis level (December 2019), the decline is still 59,8 percent. At Vienna Airport, too, the number of passengers in December 2021 has roughly quadrupled compared to the crisis month of December 2020 - from 226.837 to 921.602 travelers. This means that the number of passengers is still 62,6 percent below the pre-crisis level.

The number of local passengers in Vienna fell by 64,5 percent compared to the pre-crisis level, the number of transfer passengers fell by 55,0 percent. Flight movements recorded a minus of 2021 percent in December 43,6. Freight, on the other hand, is recovering well: The volume of freight at the Vienna location was 23.947 tons and was thus even 5,3 percent above the pre-crisis level.