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6
Produced in Las Vegas by:
On behalf of:
Offering local coffee,
chocolate cake, Austrian
wine and Red Bull, Vienna
Airport has sought to bring
a small sample of the
Austrian capital’s tasty
treats to its stand in Las
Vegas.“We wanted to show
to our stand’s visitors
exactly what their inbound
passengers could expect
when they take a trip to
Vienna,” says Julian Jäger,
Chief Operating Officer for
the airport.
However, he is also here
to sell the ‘interesting
catchment’ that the airport
has to offer, which draws
passengers from across
four countries — namely
Slovakia, Hungary, Czech
Republic and Austria.
“Currently we have 500,000
passengers per year which
are coming across the
border from Slovakia for a
flight fromVienna,” adds
Jäger. It is this diverse
catchment which has driven
recent and future capacity
enhancements from the likes
of Alitalia (Milan Linate), EVA
Air (Taipei Taoyuan), Condor
(Mombasa), Germania
(Bremen), as well as Etihad
Cargo (Abu Dhabi).
Love some
long-haul
At this moment in time,
Vienna is focusing much
of its route development
Coffee and cake with Vienna
energy into expanding its
long-haul network, an area
where it currently thinks it
is under-represented for the
size of airport it is.“There
is a definite mismatch in
terms of the number of
long-haul destinations we
have —which is 12 —with
the amount that an airport
of our size should have,
which we think is about 30-
35 destinations,” comments
Jäger. In terms of satisfying
this pent-up demand,
Vienna is in discussions with
home-based carrier Austrian
Airlines (which is taking
deliveries of a single 777
each year for the next three
years), to help fill obvious
network gaps like Los
Angeles, New York Newark,
Hong Kong, Singapore and
Osaka Kansai.
Achieving some of the
airport’s long-haul
aspirations has not been
without it set-backs.
The airport was close to
securing a link to Sao
Paulo with Star Alliance’s
TAM, only for the Brazilian
airline’s tie-up with
LAN, which has seen
the new LATAM airline
grouping switch alliances
to oneworld, result in a
reduced interest from the
carrier in establishing a
link to the Star-dominated
Vienna. However, with
airberlin/NIKI building ever-
closer ties with its oneworld
partners, there are still
opportunities to pursue.
Third
runway plans
In terms of infrastructure
developments inVienna,
the paint is dry on last year’s
Terminal 3 development
for the Star Alliance
partners, with Terminal 1’s
refurbishment close to being
finished. However, the most
significant proposal on the
drawing board is the airport’s
plans for a third runway, for
which it is looking to secure
development approval
now, to be able to deliver at
the right time in terms of
future demand.“We predict
that there will be a runway
capacity shortfall in Europe
in the coming years and we
want Vienna to be able to
provide an effective solution,”
states Jäger.
A year in the planning: Since World Routes in Abu Dhabi last year Vienna Airport’s marketing team has been developing
its concept of bringing a little bit of Vienna to Las Vegas. Enjoying the coffee and chocolate cake from Hotel Sacher —
Vienna’s most famous hotel — are Belina Neumann, Head of Aviation Marketing and Business Development, and Julian
Jäger, Chief Operating Officer.
