Aviation News - May 2016

N

estled among the beautiful

Austrian Alps, Salzburg Airport

W.A. Mozart (IATA: SZG) is an

ideal entry point to the country’s

tourist hotspots, thanks to its central location

and excellent transport links. Owned by

the Government of Salzburg (75%) and

City of Salzburg (25%), it is however run as

a private company and receives no public

funding.

Most passengers using the airport –

named after celebrated composer and

Salzburger Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – are

handled via the airport’s main terminal. But

during the peak ski season it operates a

second facility, amadeus terminal 2, which

at other times is hired out for functions or

advertising campaigns.

This compact and efficient airport

handled 1,828,309 passengers during 2015,

up 0.5% on the previous year. Scheduled

traffic accounted for 1,381,647 passengers,

an increase of 4.6%, but charter traffic

continued to decline. Alexander Klaus, the

airport’s PR chief, said: “It’s a trend we’ve

seen through the past two or three years.

I think it’s because the airlines want to be

more  exible.”

Nicolas Karres, Head of Ramp Services

at the airport, echoes that view. “I also

think the classical tour operators have tried

to reduce their risk,” he told Aviation News.

“What they tend to do is block a certain

amount [of seats] within a scheduled airline

• and they’re sure they can sell that.
  “In earlier times we had one tour operator
  for one aircraft; then we had the trend of one
  aircraft and several tour operators, [which]
  has continued, and what we see now is
  scheduled services.”

50 Aviation News incorporating Classic Aircraft May 2016

SALZBURG AIRPORT

W.A. MOZART

GATEWAY TO THE ALPS

Aviation News Assistant Editor James Ronayne

reports from Austria’s second-busiest airport.

Dutch carrier Transavia was one of several airlines that served Salzburg during the peak ski

season. Transavia’s  ight to Amsterdam enabled passengers to connect into SkyTeam’s

network at Schiphol and is part of the Salzburg Airport management’s strategy of linking the

Austrian city to Europe’s major hubs. AirTeamImages.com/Michael Priesch

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