Vienna Airport reports 'very successful' 2014 with 22.5m pax, Austrian holds almost 50% share

Vienna Airport reported (20-Jan-2015) a "very successful" year with a record 22.5 million passenger in 2014, an increase of 2.2% year-on-year despite a difficult market environment, adding it expects further growth (0% to +2%) in passengers if crises in trouble spots do not escalate. For 1Q2015, the airport is anticipating a decline in passengers, a flow on effect from the crisis situations in Russia and the Ukraine as well as the Middle East, in addition to strike-related service cancellations and the generally restrained economic climate. Cargo traffic increased 8.3% to 277,532 tonnes and aircraft movements fell 0.2% while load factor on aircraft increased 0.2 ppt to 75.0%. The airport also noted the following traffic highlights in 2014:

• Top destinations:
• • Western Europe:
  • • Frankfurt: 680,895 passengers;
    • Zurich: 476,290;
    • London: 461,630;
  • Eastern Europe:
  • • Moscow: 329,513;
    • Bucharest: 201,929;
    • Sofia: 162,265;
  • Middle East:
  • • Dubai: 232,128;
    • Tel Aviv: 157,155;
    • Doha: 48,069;
  • Long-haul:
  • • Bangkok: 115,726;
    • New York: 86,284;
    • Tokyo: 73,715;
• Largest carriers:
• • Austrian Airlines Group: 47.7% share of passengers;
  • NIKI: 11.0%;
  • airberlin: 6.2%;
  • Lufthansa: 4.8%;
  • germanwings: 3.2%;
  • Turkish Airlines: 2.2%;
  • British Airways: 1.8%;
  • SWISS: 1.7%;
  • Emirates: 1.6%;
  • KLM: 1.4%. [more - original PR]

Meanwhile, Vueling, TAP Portugal and Alitalia were the airlines recording the strongest growth in the number of passengers transported.