AIRPORT REPORT: VIENNA
Vienna calling
Vienna Airport’s Julian Jäger talks to Joe Bates about the ongoing transformation of Terminal 2, surviving COVID-19 and what the future might hold for Austria’s gateway to the world.
J
ulian Jäger is the type of boss that is always upbeat and positive, and despite today’s difficult operating conditions, he has plenty to be optimistic about as Vienna Airport, as outlined in its master plan, will open its new and improved Terminal 2 early next year. It is a big thing for the airport, as its co-CEO has reminded us with a number of number of social media posts this summer showing the ongoing transformation of Terminal 2. In May, for example, he posted on Linkedin: “We build for the future! There will be life after hashtag#corona and we are preparing vigorously on all levels. “The restructuring of our Terminal 2 is in full swing and will bring new, centralised security checks, new lounges and more convenience for our passengers. I look forward to the opening, which we will celebrate in less than a year from now!” The fully refurbished and transformed terminal is designed to make using Vienna Airport (VIE) even more passenger friendly and operationally efficient than it is now, which will be something, as the airport already boasts one of the fastest minimum connecting times in Europe (25 minutes for Austrian Airlines) and between 2017 and 2019 managed to accommodate an extra seven million passengers. VIE’s very own airport city, AirportCity Vienna – essentially comprising offices, shops and aviation related facilities such cargo and logistics buildings – also continues to take shape on the airport site with Office Park No.4 opening this summer and plans being drawn up for the construction of a new hotel. While traffic is also beginning to show the first signs of coming back, with the airport handling between 15,000 and 20,000 passengers in July compared to the all-time low of mid-March when just a couple of hundred passengers a day used VIE.
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AIRPORT WORLD/ISSUE 4, 2020
Putting the upturn in perspective though, the airport handled a record 31.7 million passengers (+17%) in 2019 and would normally expect to welcome around 100,000 a day during the busy summer months of June, July and August. “We still have a long way to go, but we are moving in the right direction now, and with people in the terminal and the shops open, the place is beginning to feel like an airport again,” says Jäger. His positivity again shines through when he notes that VIE’s ability to bounce back from adversity is one of the key things he has discovered about it during his near 20 year-long association with the airport, the last nine of which have been as co-CEO with Dr Günther Ofner. Indeed, the only thing to get anywhere near denting Jäger’s endearing enthusiasm is the fact that VIE has had to postpone the second phase of the airport’s €500 million expansion programme by at least one year to avoid any further capital expenditure while the world continues to come to terms with COVID-19. Phase two was set to include a revamp of the airport’s non-Schengen East Pier and a 70,000sqm extension to Terminal 3, referred to locally as the T3 Southern Enlargement, by the end of 2023. “For me, one of the biggest pleasures I get from my job is planning and developing new infrastructure that will improve the quality of the airport for our passengers and other guests, so I am really disappointed by the delay, but it is the right thing to do in the current circumstances as spending money is not really an option,” says Jäger. He adds that the delay in doubly painful for him as VIE has been planning for the new additions for a number of years and he was personally looking forward to showcasing the transformed airport to the world in 2023. However, ever pragmatic, he reminds us that the projects are only on hold and notes that VIE was lucky that it wasn’t in the middle of the costly
