Austria: The upward trend at Vienna Airport also continued at the beginning of the year. In January 2023, total passenger volume of the Flughafen Wien Group (Vienna Airport, Malta Airport and Kosice Airport) rose by 109.4% year-on-year to 2,076,357 travellers, whereas the figure of 1,669,566 travellers at Vienna Airport comprised an increase of 103.7% compared to January 2022. Accordingly, passenger volumes of the Flughafen Wien Group and Vienna Airport in January 2023 equalled 93.4% and 91.2% respectively of the pre-crisis level of January 2019. Thus only about 9% of the number of passengers handled in the year before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of local passengers at Vienna Airport rose to 1,326,487 (+108.8%), whereas transfer passenger traffic climbed to 337,066 travellers (+87.1%). The number of flight movements in January 2023 increased to 14,428 takeoffs and landings (+47.2%). However, cargo volume was down 13.4% from January 2022 to 17,979 tonnes.
Details on passenger traffic
Passenger traffic from Vienna Airport to Western Europe increased to 563,085 travellers in January 2023, an increase of 113.5% compared to the prior-year month. The number of passengers flying to Eastern Europe in January 2023 rose to 126,366 travellers (+80.7%). Vienna Airport reported a total of 20,472 passengers flying to North America (+56.9%) and 23,169 (+120.4%) to Africa. Passenger traffic to destinations in the Middle East equalled 71,042 travellers in January 2023 (+199.9%), whereas the number of passengers flying to East Asia climbed to a total of 30,503 (+316.8%) in January 2023.
Passenger traffic registered by the strategic investments of Flughafen Wien AG in January 2023 also increased compared to the previous year. Malta Airport reported a rise in passenger volume in January 2023 to 379,335 travellers (+138.0%), or 3.6% higher than the pre-crisis level of January 2019. Kosice Airport handled 27,456 passengers (+118.8%) in January 2023, thus 4.9% above the comparable pre-crisis level.