Feldkirchen bei Graz, 10.01.2024: With 733,146 passengers, in 2023 Graz Airport took care of 31% more passengers than in 2022. In cargo, the Airport even achieved the best result in its history, with 19,379 tons. The positive trend of recent months and the flight submissions for 2024 suggest a further rebound towards the pre-coronavirus level.
In 2023 the aviation sector continued to be confronted by multiple challenges. The repercussions of Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas conflict, general inflation and the trend in energy costs are just some of the external influences shaping air transport.
“In this challenging environment, Graz Airport did well in 2023, because we not only achieved the forecast traffic figures, but even exceeded them”, reports Wolfgang Grimus, Managing Director of Graz Airport. “The stationing of a Eurowings aircraft and the associated expansion of our range of routes (new scheduled destinations Berlin and Hamburg, as well as an expanded charter offering) was a large and important step towards the future. The export-oriented economic and industrial enterprises in Styria again increasingly replaced online meetings with face-to-face appointments with their business partners. In terms of tourist traffic, we were once again able to exceed the passenger numbers in 2019.”
“We also had many successes in the non-aviation segment”, explains Jürgen Löschnig, Managing Director of Graz Airport. “The number of events that were held at the Airport in 2023 was again almost at the 2019 level. We acquired new tenants in cargo, in the parking garage and in the office building. And in the environmental area, our first in-house PV system has been producing electricity since the spring, with more systems in preparation.”
On behalf of Holding Graz as the owner, CEO Wolfgang Malik is delighted at the continuous “ascent” of the airport, which is also important for Southern Austria and the neighbouring countries in terms of the strategic prospects: “With the notable increase in the passenger and cargo areas, our airport in Graz is once again highlighting its attractiveness, and above all its position in terms of the economy and tourism in Austria’s “Area South”. With the Koralm Railway from 2026, and the Semmering Tunnel two years later, Graz Airport will have the unique opportunity of acting as a central hub of one of the largest new dynamic economic regions in Central Europe, at the intersection point of the European transversals.”
Development in 2023 in detail
Scheduled and holiday flights
576,277 passengers selected a scheduled flight for their business or holiday travel, which enabled the airport to increase the 2022 result by 30.5%. 156,869 passengers selected a charter flight to take off for their holiday (+30.9%).
In total 9,655 take-offs and landings were recorded in the scheduled and charter traffic, representing a 12.2% increase compared to 2022. This gratifyingly demonstrates that the capacity utilisation of the aircraft increased significantly.
Cargo
In cargo, with just under 19,400 tons the planned figures were exceeded by around 17% compared to the previous year, enabling Graz Airport to achieve the best cargo result in its history in 2023.
The arrival of two new tenants in the Cargo Center reflects this successful development and sends out a positive signal for the future.
General aviation
In the general aviation area, following a drop of almost 16% the previous year, there was a comparatively low increase of 6.6% to 33,496 movements. Training flights in this area increased by around 30% compared to the previous year, and again reached the 2021 level. Commercial general aviation flights declined by 17% compared to the previous year.
Preview of the 2024 summer flight schedule
7 scheduled destinations: Berlin – Düsseldorf – Frankfurt – Hamburg – Munich (at least 3x a day instead of 1x a day compared to summer 2023) – Vienna – Zürich (increased to 5x a week)
For economic reasons and due to the planned reduction in total flight movements at Schiphol Airport, unfortunately KLM will discontinue the connection between Graz and Amsterdam at the end of March 2024.
As of the current state of planning, in total there will be direct flights from Graz to 31 destinations in 13 countries.
“The high-frequency offering to 4 major transit airports, the direct flights to attractive city destinations and a varied tourist flight programme will further strengthen our location”, declares Wolfgang Grimus optimistically.
