Vienna Airport Guide: Austria’s Gateway to the East
Vienna Airport is the Austrian Airlines hub and a bridge between western and eastern Europe. Read how its two runways, terminals and rail links work.
By The Aviation Hub
6 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Vienna Airport sits at Schwechat in Lower Austria, about 11 miles (18 km) southeast of the city centre and a short drive from the Slovak border. It is Austria’s largest airport and the hub of Austrian Airlines, the Lufthansa Group carrier that connects central and eastern Europe with the rest of the world. Two runways with crossing flight paths, a large terminal complex finished in 2012 and a cancelled third runway tell the story of a field that has grown steadily without ever quite becoming a giant. Around 32.6 million passengers passed through in 2025.
Vienna Airport at a Glance
The codes are VIE and LOWW, and the official Austrian name is Wien Schwechat. The field stands 183 m (600 ft) above sea level on the flat Vienna basin south of the Danube. It has two asphalt runways and a single connected terminal complex made up of Terminals 1, 2 and 3, plus the detached Terminal 1A. Flughafen Wien AG operates it. The company has been listed on the stock exchange since 1992, with Lower Austria and the City of Vienna holding 20 per cent each and an employee foundation 10 per cent.
Vienna Airport handled roughly 32.6 million passengers in 2025, up 2.6 per cent on the year before, with about 240,000 aircraft movements and around 230,000 tonnes of cargo. Austrian Airlines is the dominant carrier, Ryanair runs a large base and Condor has based aircraft here since April 2025. Flight information and parking are on the airport’s official website.
How Vienna’s Airport Came to Be
The airfield at Schwechat opened in 1938 as a military base and aircraft factory, built after the Anschluss and used by the Luftwaffe through the Second World War. The British occupied it after 1945, and it opened as the city’s civil airport in 1954, replacing the old Vienna airport at Aspern. Austrian Airlines started operations in 1958 and the first proper terminal, now Terminal 2, opened in 1960.
Runway 16/34, opened in 1977, gave the airport its second strip and an extension of the terminal followed in 1993. Vienna’s position on the edge of the Iron Curtain made it a natural meeting point, and after 1989 Austrian built a network across the newly open east that remains its trademark. Privatisation in 1992 put the operator on the Vienna stock exchange.
The big change came with Terminal 3, known as Skylink during construction. Work began in 2004, ran years late and far over budget, and the building finally opened on 5 June 2012 with capacity for 30 million passengers. Terminal 2 was then refurbished from 2016 to 2022 to house security screening and baggage reclaim, and Terminal 1A reopened in modernised form in April 2025.
Runways at Vienna Airport
Vienna Airport has two asphalt runways whose flight paths cross, although the strips themselves do not meet. Runway 16/34 is the longer at 3,600 m (11,811 ft) and 45 m wide. Runway 11/29 is 3,500 m (11,483 ft) long and the same width. The two cannot be used independently, and controllers pick the configuration by wind and noise rules. Westerly winds usually put arrivals on 34 and departures on 29, while easterlies bring landings on 11 or 16 and departures on 16.
Both runways carry instrument landing systems, with Category III capability on 16 and 29, and handle wide bodies such as the Boeing 777-300ER. At night controllers often run arrivals and departures on a single runway, either 29 or 16.
A third runway, 11R/29L, was the longest running saga at the field. Planned at 3,680 m parallel to and south of 11/29, it was opposed by environmental groups and was initially refused in 2017 on climate grounds before the Federal Administrative Court approved it in March 2018. The operator decided in late 2025 not to pursue the project.
Terminals and Airlines
Terminal 3 is the Austrian Star Alliance Terminal and the centre of the operation at Vienna Airport. Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, United, Air Canada, Turkish Airlines and the other Star Alliance members use it, as do Emirates, Qatar Airways, Korean Air and El Al. Its Pier F handles Schengen traffic and Pier G non Schengen flights, with the long haul gates at the far end. The Austrian lounges sit in the same building.
Terminals 1 and 2 are joined to Terminal 3 and feed Concourses B, C and D. Concourse C serves Schengen flights and D non Schengen, and Terminal 1 is the home of Ryanair, easyJet, Air France, KLM, British Airways and most other European carriers. Terminal 1A, the detached building across the forecourt, is used by Air Arabia, Condor, SunExpress, Hainan Airlines and China Airlines. All terminals share one arrivals hall in Terminal 3.
Routes and Destinations
Frankfurt was the busiest route in the last full pre pandemic year with around 1.1 million passengers, followed by Berlin, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam and Zurich, each above 940,000. London Heathrow, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Barcelona and Bucharest completed the top ten. Most of these remain key routes today.
Tel Aviv is the biggest route beyond Europe at nearly 600,000 passengers in a normal year, ahead of Dubai, Bangkok, Taipei and Istanbul. Austrian flies Boeing 777-200ERs and 787-9s to New York JFK, Newark, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Montreal, Bangkok, Tokyo Narita, Shanghai and the Maldives. Seasonal flights to Los Angeles, about 6,100 miles (9,850 km) away, are the longest. Ryanair pours volume into the Mediterranean and the Balkans from Vienna Airport.
Cargo is modest but steady at around 230,000 tonnes a year, and Korean Air Cargo flies freighters to Seoul Incheon.
Getting to and from Vienna Airport
Rail is the easy answer. The S7 S Bahn runs to Wien Mitte and on through the city in about 25 minutes for a standard fare of around EUR 4 (£3.50), which makes it the cheapest sensible option. The City Airport Train does the same trip nonstop in 16 minutes for about EUR 15. OBB Railjet and German ICE services call at the airport station, reaching Vienna’s main station in 15 minutes and running on to Linz, Salzburg, Graz and Munich.
By road the A4 motorway has its own exit for Vienna Airport and the city centre is 20 to 30 minutes away. The A6 leads to Bratislava, under an hour distant, which gives the field a second catchment in Slovakia. A taxi to the centre costs around EUR 40 to 45 (£35 to 40). Coaches from Flixbus, Blaguss and Slovak Lines serve Bratislava, Budapest, Brno and Graz.
Spotting and Photography
The visitors’ terrace has long been the main viewpoint, with a wide look across the aprons, but it is closed during the Terminal 3 southern enlargement works. Check its status before travelling. Outside the fence, the official spotting hill covers Runway 16/34, the fields near Fischamend are a favourite for arrivals on 16, and the road between Schwechat and the airport gives views of Runway 29 departures and Runway 11 arrivals.
Light is best from the west in the afternoon for the terrace and from the east in the morning for Fischamend. Austrian 777s and 787s, the Emirates 777-300ER, Korean Air Cargo 777Fs and the varied eastern European fleets are the highlights. Stay on public ground, keep clear of the fence and follow the airport police if they ask you to move.
What Comes Next
The southern enlargement of Terminal 3 is the main project. A new building joining the eastern and northern piers will add about 70,000 square metres of space, 10,000 of them for shops and restaurants, plus 18 new bus gates. Construction began in February 2024 and the opening is expected in early 2027, four years later than first planned. Austrian’s fleet renewal with Airbus A320neos and Boeing 787-9s will slowly lift seat numbers.
With the third runway abandoned, growth has to come from bigger aircraft and fuller terminals rather than more movements. Vienna Airport will remain the comfortable, efficient eastern gateway of the Lufthansa Group. Compare it with Prague, Budapest and Warsaw on the Airports of the World map.
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