Airports Vienna Airport sees low cost boom

Vienna’s airport sees a boost of low cost flights in the last months. Several new airlines will commence operations at the Austrian Airlines hub and could start a price war on attractive European routes. With over 24 million passengers in 2017, the number of passengers has grown by 3.0% compared to the year before. The growth could continue in 2018 as Wizzair, Laudamotion and other carriers base additional aircraft in Vienna.

The Hungarian low cost carrier Wizzair will start operations from Vienna International Airport on April 27, 2018. The airline will establish a base for five new aircraft by 2019 and plans to connect the Austrian capital with 29 destinations across Europe. The base establishment and the expansion of the operations represent a total investment of over $570 million, creating more than 200 direct jobs with Wizzair. First destinations will be Gdansk, Tuzla and Varna. According to its website, the low cost carrier has more than half a million seats on sale to flights to and from Vienna. In a press statement, the airline announced to add Eindhoven and Malaga as destination 28 and 29 from Vienna in July.

 „Following the recent announcement of our new low-fare services commencing from Vienna, we are glad to add more unique destinations starting this summer, Malaga and Eindhoven. Increasing and further diversifying our network to 29 destinations available from the Austrian capital,” said George Michalopoulos, Chief Commercial Officer of Wizzair.

Laudamotion, the successor of the former Air Berlin subsidiary Niki, will begin flights from Vienna to leisure destinations in June. The company, which is partly owned by Ryanair, will join the low cost market in Vienna.

IAG’s Vueling, which originally planned to acquire Niki, has announced to expand its current operations in Vienna.

Following UK’s Brexit referendum, Easyjet has established Easyjet Europe, which has an Austrian AOC. After the re-registration of several currently UK-registered aircraft, the new airline will become one of the largest Austrian airlines. It is unclear if the carrier plans to increase the number of flights at Vienna Airport.

The growing number of low cost airlines at Vienna Airport could affect Lufthansa’s subsidiary Austrian Airlines, which is currently the largest carrier (market share in 2017: 48,4%) in Vienna. Lufthansa Group has already reacted on the new competitors and has based six Airbus A320 aircraft of its low cost subsidiary Eurowings in Vienna. The airline will add new routes to its network, focusing on leisure destinations in the Mediterranean area as well as several destinations in Germany. As a sister company of Austrian Airlines, Eurowings seems to avoid direct competition with the Austrian flag carrier except for all routes to German destinations.