VIENNA (Reuters) -A project to build a third runway at Vienna Airport which was scrapped on Tuesday after decades of planning would not have paid off and existing capacity allows for growth, the
Vienna Airport's Third Runway Project Scrapped Amid Costs
VIENNA (Reuters) -A project to build a third runway at Vienna Airport which was scrapped on Tuesday after decades of planning would not have paid off and existing capacity allows for growth, the airport operator's co-CEO told Austria's ORF radio on Wednesday.
"Will we make a return on this 2 billion euro ($2.3 billion) investment? The clear conclusion was no, that's not possible," Julian Jaeger, one of the company's two top executives, said in a broadcast interview.
The company said late on Tuesday the expansion project had been abandoned on cost inflation and that planning-related assets worth 55.9 million euros would be written off.
The shares jumped 4.5% to a five month high at 1023 GMT.
Jaeger said key airlines, Lufthansa's Austrian and Ryanair , had withdrawn support and the trend for larger and fuller aircraft translated into better use of the two existing runways.
($1 = 0.8640 euros)
(Reporting by Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich Writing by Ludwig BurgerEditing by Madeline Chambers)
