Salzburg Airport

Extinguishing foam renovation will take decades

Salzburg Airport provided information on Monday about rising passenger numbers and legacy issues that need to be remedied.(Bild: Tröster Andreas)

Salzburg Airport draws a positive balance for 2023. The demand for vacations is so great that the airlines can barely cope. Leaking chemicals remain a major problem.

The summer vacation, which starts in just over two weeks, is not only making the hearts of Salzburg families beat faster. Salzburg Airport is also rubbing its hands in glee. According to the airport spokesperson, the demand for air travel is so high that the airlines can hardly cope.

We handled around 1.61 million passengers last year.

Flughafen-Geschäftsführerin Bettina Ganghofer

The major coronavirus dip with only 300,000 passengers should soon be over. "We handled around 1.61 million passengers last year. This corresponds to an increase of 31.3 percent compared to the previous year," reported Bettina Ganghofer, Managing Director of the airport, at the 2023 balance sheet press conference at the airport on Wednesday.

The airport is moving ever closer to the pre-crisis level of 1.84 million passengers. In the current year, Bettina Ganghofer wants to reach around 1.66 million passengers.

The terminal renovation is due to begin in 2026.(Bild: ATP architekten ingenieure)

The traces of the pandemic on staff should also soon be gone. During coronavirus, there were no new appointments despite retirements. This was felt in the company. "We have now filled almost all of the positions again," says the Managing Director with relief.

100 million for the terminal renovation
In the previous year, with a consolidated net profit of around 3.4 million euros, a good six million euros were invested. This included 1.5 million euros for new screening equipment for large baggage and 460,000 euros for a large photovoltaic system on the parking garage roof. The huge project for the next few years is the new terminal building. Around 100 million euros have been earmarked for this. "We definitely want to start in 2026 so that the construction costs don't rise any further," emphasized Stefan Schnöll, Chairman of the Airport Supervisory Board.

Extinguishing exercises put a strain on the ground for decades
The big unknown for the future is the remediation of contaminated sites. PFAS extinguishing foam used during fire-fighting exercises contaminated the groundwater for miles around the airport. "The groundwater has been washed since the end of last year," says Bettina Ganghofer on the status of the clean-up. The case is the first major case in Austria. Research is still in its infancy. Ganghofer says: "The remediation will take decades."

When fire extinguishing exercises were carried out decades ago, so-called PFAS substances got into the soil and persist for an extremely long time.(Bild: Tschepp Markus)

Not everything is necessarily due to extinguishing foam. The chemical has also been found in Vorarlberg and Styria, but not in the vicinity of an airport. Around the Salzburg taxiways, local residents are exposed to the noise of increasing air traffic.

Lack of fliers leads to better capacity utilization
At least aircraft movements (up 15.7 percent) only increased half as much as passenger numbers (up 31.3 percent), emphasizes the airport management. The reason for this is the internationally insufficient number of available aircraft. These are now better utilized.