Vienna Airport's airline revolution. LCCs & Lufthansa Group win from NIKI/airberlin demise
Vienna has been experiencing a revolution in its traffic, both in terms of growth and composition. In 2017, the airport pushed past 24 million passengers for the first time, after several years of stagnating around 22-23 million. This happened in the year that NIKI and airberlin, its second and third largest airlines of 2016, ceased operations.
Not only did Vienna's biggest airline, Austrian, return to strong growth after its own long period of stagnation, but its low cost airlines grew even more rapidly. Led by Eurowings, LCCs have almost doubled their share of passengers over the past two years. Vienna was Eurowings' first base outside Germany, is the base for easyJet's new Brexit-hedging European subsidiary and will be a new base for Wizz Air from summer 2018.
The Lufthansa Group now has almost two thirds of passengers at Vienna. Although Austrian is growing once more, the lower cost Eurowings gives the group a significant alternative growth vehicle.
Become a CAPA Member to access Analysis Reports
Our Analysis Reports are only available to CAPA Members. CAPA Membership provides exclusive access to in-depth insights on the latest developments in the aviation and travel industry, developed by our team of dedicated analysts located in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.
Each report offers a fresh perspective on the latest industry trends and is available online or via the CAPA mobile app, with customisable alerts to help you stay informed and identify new business opportunities.
CAPA Membership also provides access to our full suite of tools, including a tailored selection of more than 1,000 News Briefs every week and comprehensive data and analysis on thousands of companies around the world.