The number of passengers and flight movements decreased, but Innsbruck Airport is still quite satisfied with the results for 2024. Especially because, despite challenges, the development was ultimately “significantly more positive than initially feared”.
The previous year started with very bad news for Innsbruck Airport. Capacity bottlenecks at Lufthansa would lead to “route adjustments and cancellations within the group,” it was said at the time. The connection to the Frankfurt hub was therefore completely canceled in the summer flight schedule. And then there was also a reduction in flight frequencies on the Vienna route.
More than 860,000 passengers
It was therefore foreseeable early in 2024 that passenger numbers would decline during the course of the year. “Fortunately, the year as a whole has developed considerably more positively than initially feared. With 862,202 annual passengers in scheduled and charter traffic, 2024 ended with a decline of 4.9 percent,” the report said.
The number of flight movements in scheduled and charter traffic amounted to 7,573, which corresponds to a decrease of 13.4 percent compared to the previous year.
If you compare the number of annual passengers in 2024 with the record year 2019, it is still a quarter below the level of 2019. When it comes to flight movements, the difference is even more striking at around 37 percent.
Planes are three-quarters full
The value regarding the average occupancy of the aircraft is encouraging: at 74 percent, flights in 2024 were four percentage points better utilized than in 2023. This means that the occupancy is only one percentage point behind the record year of 2019.
The strongest airlines and top countries
In 2024, the “strongest airlines” in Innsbruck were the Dutch airline Transavia and the British airline easyJet. “Both airline partners even increased their annual passenger volume in 2023 compared to the previous year: Transavia transported four percent more passengers, easyJet even transported almost ten percent more,” the airport said.
When it comes to the top countries, Great Britain and the Netherlands were once again at the top. The three most popular destinations last year were London, Vienna and Amsterdam.
More than half of annual passengers are processed at the airport during the winter months. “These results once again demonstrate the importance of the winter season for Innsbruck Airport. There is a high demand from international guests who want to spend their winter holidays in Tyrol and the neighboring regions,” says Airport Director Marco Pernetta.
The summer season is becoming increasingly important
But the summer season would also become increasingly important. More than 35,000 Tyroleans flew on holiday from Innsbruck. There were increases in particular in Greece and Spain.
This summer we are going back to Turkey from Innsbruck. The tour operator TUI Austria will offer a direct flight to the airport of destination Antalya every week from May 23.
They were “very confident” for 2025 and the rest of the winter season. Since the end of October, the Frankfurt route has also been resumed and frequencies to Vienna, Amsterdam, London, Athens and Brussels have been increased.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
