With 1.83 million passengers a year, Salzburg is Austria's second busiest airport, behind Vienna. The hub, located just a few kilometres from the border with Upper Bavaria, is set to quickly reach its full capacity. two million passengers thanks to the creation of a Eurowings base. The arrival of the low-cost carrier will help to boost traffic at the airport, which has suffered from the decline in traffic over the last few years. impact of the fall in traffic with Russia as well as with destinations in the Middle East.
Last June, Eurowings created its first base outside Germanyby basing two Vienna. With the arrival of a third Airbus A320 at the end of October, Eurowings Europe will connect the Austrian capital with 15 destinations.
From January onwards, the airline will base an Airbus A320 in Salzburg. Mozart's birthplace will then be linked by Eurowings to Brussels, Geneva, Hamburg, Paris and Zurichalongside Cologne-Bonn airport, which is already served by the German airline.
According to the schedule published in August by the airline's management, Eurowings will serve Zurich six times a week, compared to five weekly flights to Paris-CDG, four to Brussels and three to Geneva and Hamburg. From Austria, the airline estimates that it will be able to carry one million passengers in a full year. The company's choice is a logical one. The Salzburg region is not only a major destination for European tourism. The airport is also at the heart of an area that is home to four million inhabitants within a radius of 150 km. Most passenger traffic is with Germany, which generated a volume of 736,000 passengers in 2015, followed by the UK with 350,000 passengers and Turkey with 132,000 passengers. France represents a very small volume due to the lack of regular flights. The airport only handled 6,100 passengers to and from France. The opening ofa regular service to Paris should boost traffic.
