The politician has never made a secret of the fact that Austria's Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) is not particularly fond of aviation. Now she is in an unusual clinch with Linz-Hörsching Airport. The airport should not be classified as "critical infrastructure".

The Upper Austrian airport is playing an increasingly important role in the freight sector. For example, the logistics group DHL maintains a transhipment point here. Numerous other cargo airlines also fly to Linz-Hörsching on schedule. However, when it comes to natural gas required for heating purposes, according to the “Ministry of Climate Protection”, the airport should not be systemically important.

Airport Director Norbert Draskovits is opposed to this and has written an extensive letter to Leonore Gewessler. Among other things, the manager writes: “With regard to the current gas crisis, we would like to inform you that Flughafen Linz GesmbH needs gas for heating purposes in an emergency. The cargo and hangar area can only be heated with gas. (...) We ask you to supply gas to our airport as a critical infrastructure in order to maintain the supply chains and to supply the people in Austria, so that we can guarantee services of general interest in addition to Vienna".

Especially during the corona pandemic, many protective items such as masks, gloves, but also vaccines from the manufacturer Biontech/Pfizer were flown in via Linz-Hörsching Airport. Draskovits also emphasizes that the Upper Austrian airport can be approached around the clock and is therefore part of the critical infrastructure in the cargo area.

Transport Minister Leonore Gewessler rarely misses opportunities to artificially badmouth Austrian aviation. So far, however, she has only shone with announcements that have not been implemented to date because they have highlighted serious concerns about Union law among the coalition partner. For example, the minimum prices for plane tickets she populistically announced were not implemented. It became very quiet around the entire project. In return, Gewessler never misses an opportunity to announce night trains or to be photographed in front of such carriages.

Accordingly, the reaction of a spokesman for the minister to the Kronen Zeitung is hardly surprising, because it is anti-aviation: "The federal government is working on all levels to secure the gas supply for the winter. From the rapid filling of domestic storage facilities to the diversification of supplier countries. Energy control would only be necessary in an absolute emergency. This reduces the consumption of large industrial companies in order to ensure the supply of critical infrastructure such as hospitals and private households. These are so-called bulk consumers - with a gas consumption of over 50.000 kWh per hour, which then have to consume less gas in a regulated manner. As far as we know, Linz Airport does not fall into this category at all.”