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The new Skylink terminal will handle 60% of Vienna Airport’s traffic (Photo: Flughafen Wien AG/Roman Boensch) |
AUSTRIA. Vienna Airport opened its long-awaited Skylink terminal extension on Tuesday, a move that has doubled retail and food & beverage space at the Austrian gateway to 19,000sq m.
The terminal’s opening was hit by delays and legal disputes over its construction, which halted work on the facility in 2009, before finally resuming and being completed this year.
All passengers departing from the new terminal will pass through a central security zone. The corridor then leads through a large shopping and food & beverage area. This houses an F&B offer that ranges from the Asian cuisine of Austrian chef Wini Brugger at Indochine Light to wines in the SkyWineLounge and DeCanto wine bars and a “coffeehouse atmosphere” in the Meinl Foodcourt and Caffé Ritazza (operated by SSP, which operates six units in total).
The main Travel Value & Duty Free store is operated by Heinemann Duty Free. The company has four stores with total floor space of around 2,000sq m. Regional specialities will be a key feature of its shops; Austrian wines will make up the vast majority of the wine range.
The Departures area also features boutiques from leading international brands such as Lagerfeld, Dolce & Gabbana, Thomas Sabo and more.
Around 82% of the shops and restaurants opened on 5 June. The other areas will open during the coming weeks after completion by the tenants, said the airport.
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The new facility will transform the passenger experience, says Vienna Airport (Photo: Flughafen Wien AG/Roman Boensch) |
Other services for departing passengers include “laptop chairs” with electrical connections, where passengers can surf the Internet with their notebooks through Vienna Airport’s free Wi-fi offer. Also new are special Family Lounges providing entertainment opportunities for younger travellers to pass the time until departure.
Yesterday morning the first arriving and departing passengers were personally welcomed by the Management Board of Flughafen Wien AG, including Chief Operating Officer Julian Jäger and Chief Financial Officer Günther Ofner.
Flughafen Wien Chairman of the Supervisory Board Erwin Hameseder said: “Today is a great day for Flughafen Wien. With this terminal, Vienna Airport is entering a new era. I would like to thank the Management Board and the entire team for bringing this difficult project to a successful conclusion. The successful start of operations is also a result of the future-oriented course the company has taken under its new management.”
“When you start operations with complex machinery like an airport terminal, you are always walking on thin ice,” said Jäger, “and that’s why we are extremely pleased over the smooth functioning of nearly all systems. All in all, we can say the start-up was a success.”
In the future, around 60% of all passengers will be handled in the new terminal, which will serve Austrian Airlines and Star Alliance flights (except Turkish Airlines and Brussels Airlines) via newly developed F and G gate areas. Arriving passengers will enter through a new arrivals hall, which also houses a number of retail and F&B units.
Following the opening of the new terminal, Flughafen Wien will now start to renovate and modernise the current terminal facilities. Work begins now to revitalise the old Terminal 1 with construction scheduled for completion by the end of 2012. Then, Air Berlin and NIKI will relocate to the redesigned terminal and work will begin on the old Terminal 2.
We’ll bring you more news and images on the opening soon.
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