Vienna Airport resurgent: Lauda leads LCCs, Air Berlin is history

Ryanair's Austrian subsidiary Laudamotion launches eight routes from Vienna International Airport this winter and is planning 17 more next summer. From a standing start in summer 2018 Laudamotion has become Vienna's number two airline by passenger numbers, behind Austrian Airlines, in 1H2019.

Laudamotion will operate 44 routes from Vienna this winter, compared with 23 last winter (based on OAG data for the week of 16-Dec-2019 and the equivalent week a year earlier). If these routes continue year-round, they will combine with the 17 route launches planned for next summer to grow its network by 24 routes, to 68, in summer 2020. This compares with 31 routes in summer 2019 (week of 19-Aug-2019, source: OAG).

Vienna's passenger numbers have also been boosted by the 2018 entry of Wizz Air and, to a lesser extent, by IAG's low cost subsidiary LEVEL. The three new entrant LCCs will carry significantly more passengers at Vienna this year than were carried by the airport's former number two operator, Air Berlin Group.

The exit of airberlin and its subsidiary NIKI (from which Laudamotion is descended) have proved to be a catalyst for resurgent traffic growth at Vienna.