Vienna International Airport Research Articles

The role of Austrian Airlines within the Lufthansa Group

Austrian Airlines is a relatively small but important part of the Lufthansa Group, and is to some extent overshadowed by its much larger German owner, together with its higher profile Swiss International Airlines compatriot and neighbour. Even so, Austrian is not as small as the group's other network carrier member Brussels Airlines. The group's low-cost point-to-point carrier Eurowings is not closely considered in this paper as the primary focus here is on a network carrier analysis, with Austrian positioned as the main case study subject. In this regard, Austrian delivers a hub-and-spoke network out of Vienna International Airport (VIE) which both compliments and strengthens the overall group's scale, scope and density. Austrian contributes a substantial boost to the Lufthansa Group in Central and Eastern Europe, though this has been reduced as a result of the ongoing war in Ukraine, including Russian air space closure. Austrian's future prospects are closely aligned with events in Ukraine, with an end to the war likely to see the airline well positioned to resume services quite quickly to Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. The study here finds that Austrian Airlines clearly maintains a symbiotic relationship with its parent company, rather than a dependency on the wider group for its survival, though it would likely be a smaller airline if it was not part of the Lufthansa Group. They compliment each other.

Plate lines to enhance wake vortex decay for reduced separations between landing aircraft

To mitigate the risk of wake vortex encounters during final approach, so-called plate lines have been developed. Data collected during a six-month measurement campaign at Vienna International Airport are used to assess the potential for reducing minimum aircraft separations facilitated by plate lines during approach and landing following the re-categorisation (RECAT-EU) methodology for revised wake turbulence categorisation. To ensure that no other parameters controlling wake vortex decay bias the analysis, it is verified that wind speed, atmospheric turbulence, thermal stratification and flight altitude reside in similar ranges with and without the plates. The analysis follows the steps of the RECAT-EU method to generate non-dimensional so-called reasonable worst-case circulation decay curves; one as a reference for nominal operations without plates and one representing the accelerated wake vortex decay brought about by the plate lines. The difference between the two circulation decay curves corresponds to the non-dimensional time-based aircraft separation reduction potential that can be translated into distance-based separation gains. Depending on the particular RECAT-EU category combination, the attained aircraft separation reduction potential ranges between 12% and 15%. Constricting the analysis to wake vortices generated by one aircraft type representing the Upper Heavy RECAT-EU category, the separation reduction potential amounts up to 24%.

Mitigating Wake Turbulence Risk During Final Approach via Plate Lines

To mitigate the risk of wake vortex encounters during final approach, so-called plate lines have been developed. Wake vortices generated by landing aircraft induce secondary vortices at the plates’ surfaces that approach the primary vortices and trigger premature wake vortex decay. Each plate line consists of several upright plates being installed underneath the approach slope. While the plate line extends perpendicular to the flight direction, its individual plates are oriented in parallel to the runway centerline. To obtain the approval of the authorities for the installation of the plate lines at runway 16 of Vienna International Airport, the plate design had to comply with airport requirements like obstacle clearance, stability, and frangibility. During a six-month campaign, wake vortex behavior of about 9500 landings with and without plates was measured simultaneously by three lidars complemented by a comprehensive suite of meteorological instrumentation. The analysis of over 1000 measured wake vortex evolutions indicates that the plate lines reduce the lifetimes of the vortices in a safety corridor along the final approach by 22–37% depending on the aircraft type. This corresponds to a reduction of vortex circulation by about 50% for the most relevant International Civil Aviation Organization separation (Medium behind Heavy).

Numerical simulation of a violent supercell tornado over Vienna airport initialized and initiated with a cloud model

Supercell storm that occurred at the Vienna International Airport - “Schwechat” on July 10th, 2017, produced large hail and tornado with the strength of F2 on the Fujita scale, which corresponds to wind speeds between 118 km/h. and 180 km/h. (~33–50 m/s). Doppler Weather radar of the Austro Control Association has successfully captured the evolution of a supercell storm and the characteristic patterns representative for the appearance of tornado. The present study examines the main triggering factors responsible for initiation of supercell storm and the main ingredients for formation of tornado. The results from a number of sensitivity tests using the advanced research version of the Weather Research and Forecasting WRF-ARW model, indicate the existence of very unstable atmospheric conditions (e.g. large surface CAPE, enhanced wind shear and veering, high storm helicity index, differential heating induced by the strong local forcing environment) favorable for initiation and development of a tornadic supercell. A three-dimensional (3-D) cloud model simulation at a 500 m horizontal grid length quite well captured some important characteristics of a supercell storm dynamics (e.g., near surface convergence, strong rotating updrafts, vertical vorticity evolution and formation of mesocyclone) and cloud microphysics (evolution and transformation of a cloud hydrometeor fields, formation and fallout of precipitation). The radar reflectivity patterns identify a two downdraft cores, a hook-shaped echo at the rear side, and bounded weak echo region at a cloud mature phase. A tornado-like signature represents a quite useful ingredient for initializing and initiation of a tornado evolved from a supercell cloud at a small sub-domain (D2). The model runs at 50 m and 10 m horizontal and vertical grid spacing within a sub-domain (D3), respectively show evident advantage in simulation of a tornado-scale vortex, initiation, evolution and dissipation, relative to a coarser model runs. The sensitivity experiments using this novel technique revealed that such small-scale local hazards as tornadoes could be reproduced quite successfully with a close resemblance to observations. The initiation of a vortex tornado that evolves from a simulated supercell storm under open lateral boundary conditions allows for the selection of a smaller area and cloud simulation with a very fine resolution, capable of capturing smaller associated tornado vortices. The proposed method shows certain advantages over other models in terms of computing time savings and can serve as a reliable tool in various applications of short-term forecasting and local hazard warning.

Assessment of dynamic pairwise wake vortex separations for approach and landing at Vienna airport

The Wake Vortex Prediction System WSVS (WirbelSchleppenVorhersageSystem) has been developed to tactically increase airport capacity by employing dynamically adjusted aircraft separations for approach and landing without compromising safety. For this purpose, the WSVS considers the involved aircraft type pairing, the prevailing weather conditions, and the resulting wake vortex behavior. A Monte Carlo simulation study demonstrates that the WSVS is well adjusted to a reasonable level of safety. The simulation study evaluates the probability that wake vortices still linger within defined radii around the follower aircraft and compares this probability to measurement data collected at five major international airports. The potential of the WSVS to optimize aircraft separations is assessed by employing twelve months of traffic and weather prediction data collected at Vienna International Airport. Analyses of the separation reduction potential are established and compared to current regulations. Dependencies on prevailing headwind and crosswind conditions are discussed in terms of individual wake vortex behavior and statistical distributions of wake turbulence separations. The results indicate that substantial potential for safely reduced aircraft separations exists mainly under sufficiently strong crosswind conditions for any aircraft type combination requiring wake vortex separation minima.

Feeling safe while being surveilled: the spatial semiotics of affect at international airports

ABSTRACT Departing from Lefebvre’s work on the social production of space, this paper explores the intersection between perceived and lived space from the perspective of spatial discourse analysis. Empirically, the paper studies how the spatiality of international airports performs affective discursive work and establishes prerequisites for air travelers’ feelings of being “in control” and “excited” vs. feelings of being “controlled” and “surveilled”. The concept of binding is applied in order to understand how affect is spatially afforded at Stockholm Arlanda Airport and Vienna International Airport. The analysis reveals that alternations between bound and unbound spaces construe the airports as distinctly ideological sites with different affective potentials. Accordingly, this article adds to the understanding of how airport atmospheres are construed by means of spatial resources such as the height, depth, and shape of walls and ceilings and by the transparency and opaqueness of the built material, as well as by more dynamic elements such as carpets, colors, signage, and retractable belt barriers.

Low-visibility forecasts for different flight planning horizons using tree-based boosting models

Abstract. Low-visibility conditions enforce special procedures that reduce the operational flight capacity at airports. Accurate and probabilistic forecasts of these capacity-reducing low-visibility procedure (lvp) states help the air traffic management in optimizing flight planning and regulation. In this paper, we investigate nowcasts, medium-range forecasts, and the predictability limit of the lvp states at Vienna International Airport. The forecasts are generated with boosting trees, which outperform persistence, climatology, direct output of numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, and ordered logistic regression. The boosting trees consist of an ensemble of decision trees grown iteratively on information from previous trees. Their input is observations at Vienna International Airport as well as output of a high resolution and an ensemble NWP model. Observations have the highest impact for nowcasts up to a lead time of +2 h. Afterwards, a mix of observations and NWP forecast variables generates the most accurate predictions. With lead times longer than +7 h, NWP output dominates until the predictability limit is reached at +12 d. For lead times longer than +2 d, output from an ensemble of NWP models improves the forecast more than using a deterministic but finer resolved NWP model. The most important predictors for lead times up to +18 h are observations of lvp and dew point depression as well as NWP dew point depression. At longer lead times, dew point depression and evaporation from the NWP models are most important.

Zur dritten Piste des Flughafens Wien

The Vienna International Airport will soon reach the limits of its capacity. The competent administrative authority had approved an application for the construction of a third runway by merely referring to the airport’s need for it. The Federal Administrative Court reversed the decision, based on a balancing of interests, transport on the one hand, environmental (in particular, climate) protection on the other hand. The Constitutional Court annulled the decision on grounds that the Federal Administrative Court by including in its balance interests not mentioned in the Aviation Statute had acted wilfully. Subsequently the Federal Administrative Court concentrated on those public interests mentioned in the Aviation Statute (mainly protection against noise) and approved the construction of a third runway, albeit under stricter conditions related to noise emissions than those originally imposed by the administrative authority. The whole episode has clarified the nature of balancing of interests to be performed when reviewing airport-related projects but has also shown some inappropriate judicial restraint of the Constitutional Court towards international law.

Probabilistic Nowcasting of Low-Visibility Procedure States at Vienna International Airport During Cold Season

Airport operations are sensitive to visibility conditions. Low-visibility events may lead to capacity reduction, delays and economic losses. Different levels of low-visibility procedures (lvp) are enacted to ensure aviation safety. A nowcast of the probabilities for each of the lvp categories helps decision makers to optimally schedule their operations. An ordered logistic regression (OLR) model is used to forecast these probabilities directly. It is applied to cold season forecasts at Vienna International Airport for lead times of 30-min out to 2 h. Model inputs are standard meteorological measurements. The skill of the forecasts is accessed by the ranked probability score. OLR outperforms persistence, which is a strong contender at the shortest lead times. The ranked probability score of the OLR is even better than the one of nowcasts from human forecasters. The OLR-based nowcasting system is computationally fast and can be updated instantaneously when new data become available.

Austrian Constitutional Court: Considering Climate Change as a Public Interest is Arbitrary – Refusal of Third Runway Permit Annulled

Abstract In the present case, the Constitutional Court found that in having considered climate change as public interest opposing the permitting of a third runway at Vienna International Airport, the deciding court had comprehensively misjudged the applicable law and thus acted arbitrarily. ‘Climate change’, the public interest in climate protection respectively, is not a public interest reflected in the Austrian Aviation Act, which the deciding court relied upon; interpreting the Act in light of the Austrian Federal Constitutional Act on Sustainability cannot newly found such a public interest. Highly anticipated, the judgment of the Constitutional Court surprises with its line of reasoning in arriving at this conclusion.

Detection and Characterization of Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-Resistant S. aureus in Foods Confiscated in EU Borders.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the potential role of the illegal entry of food in UE in the Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) spread. We studied the prevalence and characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA isolated from foods of animal origin confiscated from passengers on flights from 45 non-EU countries from 2012 to 2015 by the Border Authorities at Bilbao International Airport (Spain) and Vienna International Airport (Austria), as well as foods from open markets close to EU land borders. Of 868 food samples tested (diverse meat samples including antelope, duck, guinea pig, pork, rodents, turkey, dairy products, and eggs), 136 (15.7%) were positive for S. aureus and 26 (3.0%) for MRSA. All MRSA strains were mecA-positive. The prevalence of S. aureus-positive dairy samples among food confiscated at Bilbao International Airport was 64.6%, and this airport also had the highest value (11.8%) for MRSA-positive samples. The predominant sequence type was ST5 (30.8%), followed by ST8, ST1649, ST1, and other lineages were found to a lesser extent (ST7, ST22, ST72, ST97, and ST398). Six isolates tested positive for luk-PVL genes (SCCmec IV subtypes IVc and IVe). Enterotoxin profiling revealed that 19 MRSA strains were enterotoxigenic, harboring one or more se genes. The MRSA isolates positive for luk-PVL genes were not enterotoxigenic, and none of the isolates tested positive for enterotoxin E. We found 14 resistance profiles, and more than 69% of the MRSA isolates were resistant to three or more types of antimicrobial agents. This finding reveals both the wide diversity of the antimicrobial resistance found in the strains and the capacity to resist not only to beta-lactam drugs. One MRSA strain showed unusual characteristics: it was oxacillin-susceptible, harbored SCCmec V, and was positive for sed, seg, and sej but negative for PVL virulence factors. This study shows the presence of enterotoxigenic HA-, CA-, and LA-MRSA in foods illegally entering the EU, and highlights illegal importation of food as route of enterotoxigenic MRSA spread. Uncontrolled entry of food stuffs into the EU can be a relevant neglected route of MRSA dissemination.

Quality improvement at Vienna International Airport

Vienna International Airport (VIA) faced a challenging situation when its new Terminal 3 opened. Poor business results combined with low passenger satisfaction led to a restructuring of internal quality management. This paper presents the efforts undertaken by VIA to improve efficiency and service quality as a best practice example.

Vienna international airport noise abatement

Purpose: On the topic of sustainable aviation a study was carried out to measure the difference between the actual change in air traffic noise and the airport’s residents’ perception of the noise change at Vienna International Airport. Therefore, a questionnaire was developed in cooperation with the airport and an online survey was conducted.Design/methodology/approach: For the survey of the opinion of the affected population of the surrounding communities, a web based online questionnaire is created and distributed via various channels including e-mail, and online forums. After the basic structure of the questionnaire had been defined, the questions were developed in cooperation with employees form the environmental department of VIE, who had a sustainable influence on the questions’ order and formulation. As the survey was supposed to be answered by residents around VIE.Findings: Results of the online study show that only parts of the participants are affected by air traffic noise at VIE. Even less experienced a significant change over the last five years. About one third of the participants stated that they are affected by air traffic noise in one way or another. The majority of these people live in Lower Austria, the federal state in which the airport is located. The participants obviously judge air traffic noise during day time more importantly than air traffic noise at night.Research limitations/implications: Due to the low number of returns, no statistically relevant conclusions can be drawn, the results of the survey can be used to make some general statements.Originality/value: Economic growth and deregulation lead to growing aircraft operations. Vienna International Airport with its approximately 260,000 flight movements per year is the biggest airport in Austria and a major hub in Europe. The combination of constantly growing air transport and the resulting noise exposure, as well as the steadily increasing sensitization of the population, bring the issue of aircraft noise emission into the increased interest of the stakeholder of an airport. The study compares the extent of the subjective perceived and the actual noise emissions’ change over the last years.

Agent-based Simulation of the Railway Connection from and to the Vienna International Airport

Agent-based Simulation of the Railway Connection from and to the Vienna International Airport

Prevalence of major foodborne pathogens in food confiscated from air passenger luggage

The EU has issued several directives and regulations pertaining to the importation of animals and products of animal origin (POAO) and veterinary controls on importation. Unfortunately, little information is available concerning associated risks and no attempts have been made to collect baseline data on the actual prevalence of zoonotic agents in POAO carried by travellers. To meet these challenges the EU recently introduced and financed a research project “PROMISE”. Its main objectives were to assess the risks involved when foodborne pathogens are introduced to the EU via uncontrolled imports. With special permission of the Austrian health authorities, spot-checks were made of the luggage of 61,355 passengers from 240 flights from non-EU countries arriving at the Vienna International Airport (VIE airport). Over a period of eight months (August 2012 through March 2013) 1473 POAO items were confiscated. A total of 600 samples were suitable for Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., verotoxigenic Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes prevalence analysis. Foodborne pathogens could be detected in 5% (30/600) of all samples. The highest prevalence was attributed to L. monocytogenes, at 2.5%, followed by VTEC and Salmonella spp. at 1.3% and 1.2%, respectively. Campylobacter spp. was not present in any of the 600 samples. Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) of L. monocytogenes revealed that current sequence types (ST) corresponded to the worldwide most present clonal complexes 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, and 121. Generally, L. monocytogenes ST9 was the predominant allelic profile, which was mainly isolated from Turkish meat products.

Agent-based Simulation of the Railway Connection from and to the Vienna International Airport

Agent-based Simulation of the Railway Connection from and to the Vienna International Airport

New Spectrometric Techniques Solving the Problem of “Innocent Alarms” In Pedestrian Radiation Monitoring

This paper describes new spectrometric techniques for Homeland Security Radiation Monitoring, which can solve the problem of “innocent alarms” in pedestrian monitoring due to medical radionuclides. At airports or seaports, when large crowds are checked, innocent alarms are frequently caused by medical radionuclides which are administered to patients for various diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. For every such alarm a laborious and time consuming secondary inspection procedure is required, which impedes the flow of traffic and annoys front line officers as well as innocent passengers. The results of an extended test at the Vienna International Airport, where over one million passengers have been screened up to now, clearly show, that this problem can be solved using spectrometric radiation portal monitors (SRPM). More than 95% of the innocent medical alarms have been dynamically identified as “green alarms” without the risk of masking Special Nuclear Materials (SNM) or other illicit radionuclides.

Air accessibility and growth – The economic effects of a capacity expansion at Vienna International Airport

We use an econometric endogenous growth model to estimate the impact of air accessibility on GDP and investment growth. This is done in a dynamic panel system estimation framework for the EU-15 between 1993 and 2006. The results are then used to predict the economic effects of an increase in capacity at the Vienna International Airport using actual forecasts of the required information set. We find a GDP elasticity of air accessibility of 0.014 and an investment elasticity of 0.05 for our sample. Given the official passenger forecast this would lead to additional GDP growth in Austria of accumulated 0.81% based on the values of the restricted scenario (no third runway). In a more conservative forecast scenario of 3% annual passenger growth, a third runway is projected to increase GDP by 0.2% by 2040.

Centenary Paper: The poor and the land: poverty, property, planning

Here is a story from the roadside. A woman, accompanied by two children, is squatting on the sidewalk of a busy Gulshan street in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Figure 1). One child is a toddler, the other a little boy. The woman, while cleaning up the toddler, makes the most of a lamppost's shadow to protect the children from glaring sunlight. The group crouches on a piece of cloth or paper spread out on the pavement in front of a painted wall. The wall marks the boundary between private land and the public street. Since the woman and the children are poor, the commons are essential for their land use practices, even if the roadside offers little comfort to them. The behaviour of humans in deprived and desperate circumstances shapes the spatiality of poverty. Bangladesh, with a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.547, ranks 140 in a HDI country list of 177 (UNDP, 2007, 231). In 2005, the HDI average for OECD countries was 0.916; for the UK it was 0.946 (rank 16), for Germany 0.935 (rank 22), and for Sierra Leone 0.336 (rank 177). The HDI considers several indices: life expectancy at birth, the adult literacy rate, the combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary education, and gross domestic product per capita (UNDP, 2007, 229-32). How does our ability to measure poverty actually improve the lives of the poor? Meanwhile, the unnoticed woman carries on with her business. In Bangladesh, the poor are considered invisible by the elite and do not demand profound political changes (Hossain and Moore, 2005). Here is another story from the roadside. Travellers who have checked in at Vienna International Airport can feast their eyes on a luxurious spectacle of caviar. Figure 2 shows four cases of caviar. Each has a prominent price tag. The price of each case - containing a little over 400 grammes of caviar - exceeds Bangladesh's GDP per capita ($2.05 in 2005). Caviar boutiques invite high-end consumers. Retailing, which relies on passengers' impulsive shopping behaviour, has grown into many an airport's main business. The behaviour of humans in an affluent and already highly satiated state shapes the spatiality of wealth. International airports, once used for transition only, today have more shops and conference rooms than arrival and departure gates. To avoid the consequences of the economic crisis, luxury brands seek 'new modesty' and 'sustainable luxury' (Kahn, 2009, 12). Caviar retailers, however, still promote their products among travellers, who, after all, are credit cards on feet. The spatiality of poverty and wealth is grounded in plural perceptions of land and the social production of land uses by the wealthy and the poor. Figures 1 and 2 help us to perceive land, among other things, as a territory, an economic commodity and an environmental resource. The images invoke land rights, scarcity, value, purity and other qualities of land that planners must not replace with abstract notions of space. The captivating book Southern Theory criticises social theory for its lack of interest in place, material context, and specifically the land Disregarding the land is not just one theoretical choice among others; it emerges as a feature of the ideology of neoliberal society. (Connell, 2007, 196 and 208) Although most spatial planners position themselves as promoters of social and ecological issues, they often neglect the relationship between the poor and the land. Does it suffice to provide space for social housing? Although housing is critical for the poor, the current global discourse on poverty and property is not confined to social housing, but includes the vulnerability of land uses by the poor, informal settlements, the land rights of women, land reform, the contested spaces of urban commons, or new types of ownership for spaces of social exchange. This discourse - including the discussion of sustainable development, poverty reduction, the Millennium Development Goals, or the World Bank's pro-poor land policy - contemplates the poor and the land comprehensively. …