Europe · Austria

Handling at Vienna (LOWW)

We handle overflight permits, slots, flight plans, fuel, customs and the turnaround at Vienna. One coordinator owns the stop at Vienna, from the first filing to wheels up.

AERODROME

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ICAO: LOWW
IATA: VIE
Elevation: 600 ft
Position: 48.110, 16.570

RUNWAYS

16/343,600 m / 11,811 ftAsphalt
11/293,500 m / 11,483 ftAsphalt

Reference only, not for flight planning. Lengths are full declared runway length rather than declared distances, and this page is not amended on the AIRAC cycle. Check the current AIP and NOTAMs, or ask the desk and we will check them for you.

The field

What LOWW is actually like

Vienna is central Europe's business aviation hub and the practical gateway to Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic. It has a long-established general aviation centre and handles private traffic as a normal part of its day.

Operating brief

What we handle before you file

Permits

Austria is in the EU, so European operators face no landing permit for private flights. Austro Control handles the coordination, and non-EU commercial operators deal with traffic rights in the usual way.

Slots and parking

Slot coordinated, though rarely to the point of pain outside event weeks. Parking is generally available, which makes Vienna a comfortable overnight in a region where that is not guaranteed.

Customs and border

Most European arrivals clear without a border check. Vienna's post sees heavier use than its Schengen position suggests, because it is a common first point of entry from the Balkans, Türkiye and the CIS states.

When it gets tight

The Vienna ball season from January into February, and the Christmas market period from late November. Neither closes the airport, but both fill the good hotels and the ground transport before the apron.

On the ground

Off the aircraft and into the car

A long-established general aviation centre that handles private traffic as routine rather than as an event. The Ring is twenty to thirty minutes and the road works most hours. Bratislava is an hour away if the trip is really going there.

Alternates

Where we go when LOWW will not take the trip

Every one of these is a field we would put to you with the reason attached, not a list of nearby runways.

LZIB
Bratislava
Under an hour by road from central Vienna and a genuinely different country, which can simplify or complicate depending on the passengers.
LOWS
Salzburg
The ski gateway, and a better answer than Vienna for anything heading into the Austrian Alps.
LOWL
Linz
Quiet, capable and rarely constrained, two hours west.

What we handle here