Finance
Vienna Airport: third runway would not have paid off, growth ambitions are intact
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on November 26, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on November 26, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Vienna Airport's third runway project was scrapped due to cost concerns. Existing capacity is deemed sufficient for growth, with key airlines withdrawing support.
VIENNA (Reuters) -A project to build a third runway at Vienna Airport 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Jaeger said key airlines, Lufthansa's Austrian and Ryanair , had withdrawn support and the trend for larger and fuller aircraft translated into better use of the two existing runways.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 BurgerEditing by Madeline Chambers)
A runway is a designated area on an airport where aircraft take off and land. It is a critical component of airport infrastructure, designed to support the weight and speed of various aircraft.
Cost inflation refers to the increase in the prices of goods and services over time, which can impact the overall cost of projects and investments, making them more expensive than initially planned.
Investment return is the gain or loss made on an investment relative to the amount invested. It is typically expressed as a percentage and can include income, capital gains, or losses.
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