Julian Jäger and Günther Ofner, Members of the Management Board, Flughafen Wien AG, interviewed by Marta Dimitrova.
Günther Ofner and Julian Jäger, Members of the Management Board, Flughafen Wien AG, are taking a further step towards enhancing the attractiveness of Vienna Airport with a €500 million ‘forward-looking’ terminal development, and the constantly-growing Airport City.
The headline figures show that the first half of 2017 was notably successful for Flughafen Wien Group – revenue was up 3.4% to €357.5 million, and passenger growth across the group was 9.2% (6.9% for Vienna Airport).
“Flughafen Wien AG continued its positive business development – generating substantial increases in revenue and earnings – and thus its 25-year success story,” says Günther Ofner, Member of the Management Board of Flughafen Wien AG.
In particular, traffic is increasing to the regions of Eastern Europe, including the Russian market, along with the Middle East and Africa. Long-haul routes are also developing well. For example, Thai Airways will offer direct services to Bangkok as of November. Julian Jäger, Member of the Management Board of Flughafen Wien AG, comments: “Even though current developments involving airberlin group are not gratifying, we expect this to have no significant negative effects on total passenger volumes at Vienna Airport. In particular, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings and easyJet are the growth drivers this year, more than compensating for capacity reductions of the airberlin group. Due to the good passenger development, we have revised our forecasts upwards for the year 2017, and now expect an increase of more than 5% in passenger volume of the Flughafen Wien Group, and more than 4% for Vienna Airport.”
Additionally, the foreign strategic investments of the Flughafen Wien Group in Malta and Kosice airports are developing favourably so far, with Malta Airport reporting a strong rise in passenger volume of 20.3% to 2.6 million passengers, and Kosice Airport showing a considerable rise of 11%, handling almost 190,000 passengers.
Vienna Airport is currently working on a new incentive programme, which will be launched in 2018, aimed at improving growth perspectives for airlines and safeguarding the future of the hub.
A key component of the airport’s business strategy is its transformation from a real estate location to a multifunctional airport city. “The Vienna Airport site is also growing,” states Ofner. “The new Office Park 4, for which planning work is already underway, will offer more than 20,000sqm of new office space in the Airport City. The expansion of the Cargo Centre featuring one of Austria’s largest photovoltaic facilities will be concluded by the end of 2017.”
€500m terminal development
To accommodate sustained growth, Vienna Airport is maintaining its quality-oriented strategy. In 2016, the airport presented its €500 million concept for future terminal development focused on increasing passenger comfort, expanding the shopping and gastronomy offering, and creating a central security area.
Vienna Airport has already presented attractive new food & beverage offerings. For instance, in April, British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver expanded to Austria for the first time with the takeaway concept Jamie’s Deli in Terminal 3, following an agreement between Flughafen Wien AG and SSP. The restaurant Jamie’s Italian will open at the end of 2017, to be followed by the Jamie Oliver Bar in mid-2018.
“The successive expansion of the high-quality cuisine created by Jamie Oliver is a key element in our quality strategy for the food & beverage segment, and will immensely extend the culinary offering for passengers and employees at Vienna Airport,” enthuses Jäger.
Looking ahead, Vienna Airport is focused on maintaining passenger growth and implementing its ‘forward-looking’ terminal development project. “The projects we have presented aim to provide passengers with greater comfort and a much more diverse shopping and gastronomical offering. It is our clear objective to become a 5-star airport by implementing these improvements,” concludes Jäger.
