Salzburg Airport has a small footprint, covering only 175 hectares (432 acres) of land but has a 2,750m runway equipped to handle aircraft as large as the Boeing 747-400.[5]
At the start of World War II, on 1 September 1939, Salzburg Airport was seized and in 1943 the "Luftgaukommando VII" in Munich was put in charge of it. In the autumn of 1944 the newly developed fighter jet Messerschmitt Me 262 appeared. When the United States Air Force first bombed the city of Salzburg on 16 October 1944, with a subsequent 15 air attacks on the city, the airport remained undamaged. Salzburg Airport was the first Austrian airport to become a part of European scheduled traffic again.[citation needed]
On 1 August 1958, a control tower was put into operation after a 15-month construction period and a new terminal was opened in 1966.
The airport reached the target of 1,265,000 passengers in 2000, and British Airways announced flights to Salzburg from London. These flights were cancelled a year later. Also in 2001, low-cost carrierRyanair landed at Salzburg, its first Austrian destination. This was also the first time an Austrian airport hosted a low-cost carrier. Aer Lingus commenced flights to Salzburg from Dublin for their winter schedule in 2005. In 2006, Ryanair started services to Charleroi, which ended in 2007, and Dublin.
In spring 2014 the airport's home carrier Austrian Airlines announced the closure of their ticketing and service counters at Salzburg Airport due to decreasing demand. Additional services are instead provided directly at the check-in counters.[6]
In August 2016, German low-cost airline Eurowings announced it would open its second Austrian base in Salzburg, with flights to six European metropolitan destinations from January 2017.[7]
In May 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Wizz Air announced six new routes – beginning in July 2020 – creating new connections to the region. In the same time, Austrian Airlines announced the termination of their route from Salzburg to their hub at Vienna International Airport after 60 years,[8] partially due to the heavily expanded Railjet high-speed train connections between the cities.
Salzburg Airport consists of two passenger terminals:[9]
Terminal 1 is the main building, featuring 26 check-in desks, several service counters, some shops and restaurants and a visitors terrace. The airside area consists of 10 boarding gates that can be used for Schengen and non-Schengen destinations.[9] As there are no jet bridges, walk- and bus-boarding is used. There is a business lounge operated by Salzburg Airport.
Terminal 2 is much smaller, featuring nine additional check-in counters and four boarding gates, as well as a designated area to check in skiing equipment.[9] It has limited passenger facilities due to its use for seasonal peak-time traffic.
The airport is located 3 km from the city centre. Salzburg trolleybus lines 2 and 10, each with service every 10 minutes, connect the airport to the rest of Salzburg's public transport system. The main station is reachable in about 25 minutes and the inner city in about 30 minutes.
^"Aerodrome availability"(PDF). AIP Austria (in German and English). Austro Control Österreichische Gesellschaft für Zivilluftfahrt mbH. p. 31. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
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