Oct 24, 2001 06:46 PM
2063 Views
Vienna was the first international airport I flew into (when I was 8), and the last one I flew out of (when I was 19). In between though, I’ve used 10 or 11 others for arrivals and departures, so I do have something with which to compare it.
Seeing as this is an opinion website, this is going to be just that, an opinion. For facty details (shop and café listings, flight details, directions, parking instructions etc) have a look at
https://english.viennaairport.com/
which is the English version of their website.
I’ve flown into this airport on 4 occasions, but this op is going to focus on the last time (which was the only time I’ve travelled alone to Vienna and so they only time I’ve had to pay attention to things). Vienna is little. It’s tiny. Diddy. Wee. Call it what you will, for a country’s main airport, just outside the capital city, it’s minute. This isn’t a feature unique to Austria though – this year alone I’ve flown in and out of Berlin and Paris, and both were, well, small and crappy compared to Manchester. When you arrive at Vienna, or at least when I arrive there, the plane stops miles from the terminal. Not only do you have to wait to disembark, but you have to wait for a bus, wait for everyone to get on the bus and wait for them to double check that everyone’s on the bus before you can set off to the main building.
I arrived Tuesday lunchtime which I doubt is a very busy time for them, but we had to wait ages at baggage claim before we could claim our baggage. After that it was time for a quick trip past some bored looking Custom’s officials before arriving in the entrance hall. I was being met by someone I knew, but the lady sitting next to me on the plane had strict instructions to make her way to the info desk / meeting point and find her driver. Incidentally she was extremely nervous about this trip since she could speak no German and was travelling alone (something new for her), and I don’t think the fact she had someone 20 years younger than her sitting there telling her it was easy and that they did it all the time (which is true, I do) helped her relax. Anyway, we located it easily and she seemed happy enough as I headed out to the car park. The airport is pretty well signed (in English as well as German) but even without these signs you wouldn’t get very lost as it’s so small.
On coming home I was dropped off at the departure doors and quickly located the right check in desk. The staff members were pretty bored looking but efficient and soon enough I was relieved of one bag (but still had 3, ahem, essential carry ons with me) and set off to explore the shops.
Airport shopping is, in many ways, often the best part of travelling. At Manchester especially, I’m in heaven, as they have everything (as long as you’re not flying from slightly iffy terminal 2 – being the sad person that I am, I have chosen airlines before not based on time of travel, but on which terminal they depart from). Vienna airport is advertised all over the city with posters claiming they have a shopping mall for the discerning traveller. If they did, they hid it well: I found a Body Shop, a clothes shop and a million shops selling Milka and Ritter Sport (although they were all out of the pale blue stuff – why??????). Put off only slightly, I wandered across to the first of 3 check points. Here they check boarding passes only – so anyone holding one can get through. Once inside there were more shops (inc Harrods – actually come to think of this, this might have been pre-first check point) and numerous cafes. Things were looking up. I explored the book shop, contemplated buying some more chocolate (but refrained – how strong am I?) and then headed over to the Häagen Dazs café (ok, I take back the last comment) where somehow I managed to spend over £7 on an ice cream. But it was a spectacular ice cream (better than the Manchester branch have ever given me) and I needed to use up my coins, so that was ok.
After this I went through the next control area, where armed guard type people checked my passport against me (and decided I did look close enough to the picture taken 3 years ago) and let me through. Here there were more shops, or rather lots of branches of the same shop (a newsagent style place) where they thought it was ok to charge twice the UK cover price for a copy of Cosmo.
Finally, I headed to the last check point where they (for the 1st time) x-rayed my hand luggage and made me walk through the metal detector things I used to make beep when I was younger by wearing a too-much-metal-containing belt. It took 5 staff members to do this, and as I was the only person going through this seemed a little overkill. From here I headed down the stairs and found myself at the gate. Nearly an hour early. And with no more shops the explore. This area had drinks machines (for buying drinks), loos (for when you’ve drunk the drinks) and chairs (so you don’t have to stay on the loos when you want a sit down). About 5 mins after we were meant to leave a member of the ground staff checked our boarding passes (again), sent the important looking business people out to the bus and then let us mere mortals follow. After a trip longer than 4 or 5 stops on a commercial bus line, we ended up standing in the rain waiting to board the plane while the bus drove off. Evil people.
Once on the plane we were told that we couldn’t take off for a while as, and I quote, “the sky was busy”. Not a problem as such, but they could have left us in the terminal for another half an hour I imagine, especially as the next flight from our gate was advertised as leaving 4 hours later. Never mind.
Overall, no where near my favourite airport, with finicky security checks. I don’t know how these will change in light of the situation in New York and Washington, but I can’t imagine that x-raying hand luggage earlier on would be a bad thing.
The layout is ok, the staff are ok, and the shops are ok. But these days, ok is not good enough. Some say there’s nothing wrong with mediocrity, but there is when you’re used to perfection. Not that Manchester is the mother of all airports , but it’s a lot better than this place.
