The Austrian airport Innsbruck has established itself as a popular landing place for training camps for professional soccer teams over the past 15 years. Charter and special flights land regularly at the Tyrolean airport.
Friendlies, training camps or major sporting events bring professional athletes to Tyrol. Before the European Football Championship 2008 there were only a few football charters that could be welcomed in Innsbruck, Tyrol and Innsbruck Airport have become enormously popular with football clubs since the European Championship in 2008.
In the year of the EM 2008, a record 90 rotations of teams could be handled. The highlight among them were the later European champions from Spain, who had set up their - very successful - training camp in Tyrol. “When the Spaniards landed after winning the final, but especially when they flew back to Spain in the afternoon in front of hundreds of fans, indescribable scenes played out for us,” airport manager Marco Pernetta remembers fondly today.
Since then, there have been an average of between 15 and 20 football charters in the summer months. At the airport, the different requirements of the teams are handled very routinely. You are used to smooth and well-organized apron collections, cheering fans, autograph requests and press interviews.
A total of around 2021 soccer charters will be processed in summer 30. These include 13 different airlines from 11 nations that travel from / to 14 countries via Innsbruck. Five of the teams are national teams (Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Austria and Russia).