Vienna Airport: third runway would not have paid off, growth ambitions are intact

Flughafen Wien AG

26/11/2025 10:45

VIENNA, Nov 26 (Reuters) - A project to build a third runway at Vienna Airport VIEV.VI which was scrapped on Tuesday after decades of planning would not have paid off and existing capacity allows for growth, the airport operator's co-CEO told Austria's ORF radio on Wednesday.

"Will we make a return on this 2 billion euro ($2.3 billion) investment? The clear conclusion was no, that's not possible," Julian Jaeger, one of the company's two top executives, said in a broadcast interview.

The company said late on Tuesday the expansion project had been abandoned on cost inflation and that planning-related assets worth 55.9 million euros would be written off.

The shares jumped 4.5% to a five month high at 1023 GMT.

Jaeger said key airlines, Lufthansa's LHAG.DE Austrian and Ryanair  RYA.I, had withdrawn support and the trend for larger and fuller aircraft translated into better use of the two existing runways.

($1 = 0.8640 euros)

 (Reporting by Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich
Writing by Ludwig Burger
Editing by Madeline Chambers)

 ((ludwig.burger@thomsonreuters.com))