On 16 June 2015, Vienna Airport granted its Airline Award for the third time: this year's award goes to NIKI/airberlin, Ethiopian Airlines and Air China, the airlines with the highest increase in passenger volume at Vienna Airport in 2014.
Award winner NIKI/airberlin offers flights to around 65 destinations from Vienna in summer 2015. The airline has been able to increase its passenger volume significantly, especially to destinations in Greece such as Santorini or Kalamata but also to the newly established connections Larnaca (Cyprus) and Madrid (Spain). The other award winners have only been flying to Vienna since 2014 and clearly demonstrate the success of their new flight routes in bringing passengers to Vienna: after Air China started with four flights per week to Beijing in May 2014, Ethiopian Airlines followed in June with four flights per week to Addis Ababa. In March 2015, they also began operating Boeing 787 aircrafts flying to Vienna.
Vienna Airport's award for its customers
The award was presented by Belina Neumann, head of aviation marketing & business development, Flughafen Wien AG to Thomas Suritsch, managing director NIKI; Solomon Mekonnen, regional director Austria & Eastern Europe Ethiopian Airlines, and Uta Wang, general manager Austria Air China on the occasion of the VIE Summer Event on 16 June 2015.
"Vienna Airport was able to report a good passenger growth over the course of last year, primarily due to the airlines at Vienna Airport. This award is a token of our appreciation for the outstanding performance of our airline customers," Nikolaus Gretzmacher, senior-vice president operations, Flughafen Wien AG, explains.
All the airlines gladly accepted the award. "Our flexibility and efficiency enable us to react to market conditions on short notice. They are also essential to our growth taking place in the tourism segment, e.g. to Spain and Greece," Thomas Suritsch, managing director NIKI, stated. Uta Wang, general manager Austria Air China, thanked Vienna Airport for the award and the excellent cooperation as well. Solomon Mekonnen, regional director Austria & Eastern Europe Ethiopian Airlines, was very pleased and pointed out their summer flight schedule, "We have been operating the Dreamliner on our flight route from Addis Ababa to Vienna since late March. This allows us to offer our passengers the best possible comfort."
