Vienna International Airport

"VIE" redirects here. For other uses, see VIE (disambiguation).

Vienna Schwechat International Airport Flughafen Wien-Schwechat
IATA: VIE ICAO: LOWW
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Flughafen Wien AG
Serves	Vienna, Austria
Elevation AMSL	600 ft / 183 m
Coordinates	48°6′37″N 16°34′11″E
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 16/34 11,811 3,600 Paved 11/29 11,483 3,500 Paved

Vienna International Airport (IATA: VIE, ICAO: LOWW) (German: Flughafen Wien-Schwechat), located 18 kilometers (11 miles) southeast of Vienna, is the busiest and biggest airport in Austria. It is often referred to as Schwechat, the name of the nearby town. The airport is capable of handling wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A340. The airport is the hub of Austrian Airlines and its subsidiaries, as well as budget airline Niki and Sky Europe.

History

Originally built as a military airport in 1938, it was taken over by the British in 1945. In 1954, the Betriebsgesellschaft was founded, and the airport replaced Aspern as Vienna's (and Austria's) principal aerodrome. There was just one runway, which in 1959 was expanded to measure 3,000 metres. The erection of the new airport building starting in 1960. In 1972 another runway was built.

The airport received Olympic teams as Austria has twice hosted the Winter Olympics. Pope John Paul II also used the airport during his visits to Austria. On December 27, 1985, the El Al ticket counter was attacked by Palestinian terrorists. (See Rome and Vienna Airport Attacks.)

The airport formerly featured a Harrods, but it closed in 2003.

The designed 109-meter tall control tower presents a unique laser show after dark

Exterior view of Hall A for international flights

One of several check-in halls at the airport

Gates of Hall C, serving mostly Schengen countries

Interior of Terminal 1A, serves mostly low-cost carriers

Luggage reclaim hall

Terminals

Presently, Vienna International Airport has three terminals. A provisory terminal (1A) was built to offer more space for low-cost carriers. In 2006, the airport started building a new terminal, SKYLINK, which will make the airport more capable of dealing with higher passenger volumes (2006: 16.9 million). This new terminal will also make the airport capable of handling bigger aircraft, such as the Airbus A380.

Concourses

Hall A ("Pier East"): International Flights
(Transit-Zone; Passport-control at entrance/exit of the hall; Gates with Jetbridges and Busgates)

Hall B: Europe(Schengen)-Flights
(Busgates)

Halle C ("Pier West"): Europe(Schengen)-Flights, partial International Flights
(Gates with Jetbridges; Several gates are used for Europe(Schengen) -Flights and also for International Flights; For International Flights: Gates are called Transfergates; Passport-control at the respective gates; Passengers from International- to International Flights are going at arrival at one of the C-Gates, in front of the immigration-passport-control, to the transitzone to ground-floor, where they have access to other International Flights from the C-Gates and a shuttlebus-connection to the international hall A; Passengers arriving at the international hall A with an international connection-flight from one of the C-Gates use also the shuttlebus)

Masterplan 2015

Because of its constant growth in passenger numbers and freight, Vienna International Airport has decided to enlarge Austria's biggest airport with several new and respectively adapted buildings.

• New Tower: A new Tower was built. With its 109 meters of height, it allows a free overlook of the entire airport area and it offers another spectacular sight: a night laser show, which should welcome the passengers even from the aircraft.

• New Terminal: Due to constant passenger and freight growth, Vienna International Airport has planned to build another Terminal, SKYLINK, which should be able to compensate higher passenger rates. Construction started in 2006 and will last until late 2008. If there is still an enormous amount of passenger growth, the Masterplan 2015 sees an enlargement of SKYLINK.

• Third Runway: Due to higher aviation rates, a third runway will be necessary for the airport. A mediation process was held, and the start of the construction of the third runway will be in 2009.

• Railway station: The underground railway station will be enlarged and a connection to Bratislava will be constructed. Additionally the CAT, City Airport Train, which connects the centre of Vienna with the airport in just 16 minutes, will receive a new underground railway station.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger airlines

• Adria Airways (Frankfurt, Ljubljana)
• Aeroflot (Moscow-Sheremetyevo)
• Aer Lingus (Dublin)
• African Safari Airways (Mombasa [seasonal])
• airBaltic (Riga)
• Air Berlin (Berlin-Tegel, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, Münster/Osnabrück, Nürnberg, Stuttgart)
• Air China (Beijing) [Starts October 2009]
• Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
• Air Malta (Malta)
• Air One (Naples, Rome-Fiumicino)
• Air Transat (Montréal, Toronto-Pearson)
• Air Via (Bourgas)
• Alitalia (Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino)
• Austrian Airlines (Amman, Amsterdam, Antalya, Astana, Athens, Baia Mare - Frauenbach, Baku, Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Beijing, Beirut, Belgrade, Berlin-Tegel, Brussels, Bucharest-Otopeni, Cairo, Calvi [seasonal], Chicago-O'Hare, Copenhagen, Corfu [seasonal], Damascus, Delhi, Dnipropetrovsk, Dubai, Dubrovnik [seasonal], Düsseldorf, Erbil[service suspeded due to security reasons], Frankfurt, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Genoa, Heraklion, Hurghada, Kiev-Boryspil, Lamezia[seasonal], Larnaca [seasonal], Las Palmas, London-Heathrow, Luxor, Mahon [seasonal], Málaga [seasonal], Male [seasonal], Milan-Malpensa, Moscow-Domodedovo, Mumbai, Munich, New York-JFK, Oslo, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Priština, Reykjavik, Rhodes [seasonal], Sarajevo, Sharm El Sheik, Skopje, Sofia, Split[seasonal], Stockholm-Arlanda, Tbilisi, Tehran-Imam Khomaini, Tel Aviv, Tenerife-South, Tokyo-Narita, Toronto-Pearson, Washington-Dulles, Yerevan, Zürich)
  • Austrian Arrows operated by Tyrolean Airways (Altenrhein, Amsterdam, Ankara, Barcelona, Basel/Mulhouse, Belgrade, Berlin-Tegel, Bologna, Brussels, Bucharest-Otopeni, Budapest, Chişinău, Cluj, Cologne/Bonn, Copenhagen, Dnepropetrovsk, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Florence (via Bologna), Frankfurt, Geneva, Gothenburg, Graz, Hamburg, Hannover, Helsinki, Iaşi, Innsbruck, Istanbul-Atatürk, Kharkov, Kiev-Boryspil, Klagenfurt, Kosice, Kraków, Krasnodar, Leipzig/Halle, Linz, London-Heathrow, Luxembourg, Lviv, Lyon, Milan-Linate, Milan-Malpensa, Minsk, Munich, Nice, Nizhniy Novgorod [starts 3 April 2008), Nuremberg, Odessa, Podgorica, Prague, Priština, Riga, Rome-Fiumicino, Rostov-on-Don, Salzburg, Sarajevo, Sibiu, Skopje, Sochi [starts 2 April 2008], Sofia, Split [seasonal], St. Petersburg, Stockholm-Arlanda, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Thessaloniki, Timişoara, Tirana, Tripoli, Varna, Venice, Vilnius, Warsaw, Zagreb, Zürich)
• Belavia (Minsk)
• British Airways (London-Heathrow)
• Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
• Bulgaria Air (Sofia, Varna)
• Bulgarian Air Charter (Bourgas) seasonal
• Central Connect Airlines (Ostrava)
• China Airlines (Abu Dhabi, Taipei-Taiwan Taoyuan)
• Clickair (Barcelona)
• Croatia Airlines (Dubrovnik[seasonal], Split[seasonal], Zagreb)
• Cyprus Airways (Larnaca)
• Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)
• Dniproavia (Dnipropetrovsk)
• Easy Jet (London-Luton)
• Emirates (Dubai)
• EgyptAir (Cairo)
• El Al Israel Airlines (Tel Aviv)
• Estonian Air (Tallinn)
• EVA Air (Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Taipei-Taiwan Taoyuan)
• Finnair (Helsinki)
• Free Bird Airlines (Antalya)
• Georgian Airways (Tbilisi)
• Germanwings (Cologne/Bonn, Dortmund, Stuttgart)
• Iberia (Madrid)
• InterSky (Friedrichshafen)
• Iran Air (Tehran-Imam Khomeini)
• Jat Airways (Belgrade)
• KD Avia (Kaliningrad)
• KLM (Amsterdam)
  • KLM Cityhopper (Amsterdam)
• Korean Air (Seoul-Incheon)
• LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw)
  • LOT Polish Airlines operated by EuroLOT (Kraków)
• LTU (Antalya, Hurghada, Sharm el Sheikh)
• LTU Austria (Ibiza, Karpathos, Kos, Salzburg, Samos)
• Lufthansa (Berlin-Tegel, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich, Stuttgart)
  • Lufthansa Regional operated by Air Dolomiti (Verona)
• Luxair (Luxembourg)
• MAT Macedonian Airlines (Ohrid, Skopje)
• Niki (Antalya, Belgrade [starts 10 March 2008], Faro, Frankfurt, Ibiza, Málaga, Marsa Alam, Moscow-Domodedovo, Milan-Malpensa [Starts March 2008], Munich, Nürnberg, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Rome-Fiumicino, Sharm El Sheikh, Zürich)
• Olympic Airlines (Athens)
• Onur Air (Istanbul-Atatürk)
• Pegasus Airlines (Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen)
• Qatar Airways (Doha)
• Rossiya (Moscow-Domodedovo, St. Petersburg)
• Royal Jordanian (Amman)
• Saudi Arabian Airlines (Jeddah, Munich, Riyadh)
• Scandinavian Airlines System (Copenhagen)
• SkyEurope (Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Bourgas, Brussels, Bucharest-Băneasa, Catania, Copenhagen, Dubrovnik, Innsbruck, Kraków, Larnaca, Lisbon, Milan-Bergamo, Naples, Nice, Olbia, Paris-Orly, Rimini, Sofia, Split, Thessaloniki, Treviso (Venice), Varna, Warsaw, Zadar)
• Spanair (Madrid)
• SunExpress (Antalya)
• Syrian Arab Airlines (Aleppo, Berlin-Schönefeld)
• Swiss International Air Lines (Zürich)
• TAROM (Bucharest-Otopeni, Cluj-Napoca)
• Transaero Airlines (Moscow-Domodedovo)
• Tunisair (Monastir, Tunis)
• Turkish Airlines (Ankara, Istanbul-Atatürk, Izmir, Samsun-Carsamba)
• Ukraine International (Kiev-Boryspil, Odessa)
• Viaggio Air (Sofia)

Cargo airlines

• Emirates SkyCargo (Dubai)
• European Air Transport (Brussels)
• TNT Airways (Liege)
• Asiana Airlines (Seoul-Incheon)
• Korean Air (Seoul-Incheon)
• China Airlines (Taipei-Taiwan)

Former airlines and destinations

• Air Moldova (Chişinău)
• Austrian: Melbourne, Sidney, Johannesburg, Kaapstadt, Harare, Bagdad, Shanghai
• Montana Austria
• TAROM (Sibiu) used to be served via Cluj-Napoca - service discontinued as Austrian Arrows started its own non-stop service to Sibiu

External links

• Vienna International Airport Homepage