Stranded passengers

Storm leads to chaos at Vienna Airport

Passengers sometimes waited for hours for information about their flights.(Bild: zVg)

Numerous flights had to be canceled due to the thunderstorm cells. There was also chaos at Schwechat Airport as a result. Hundreds of passengers were stranded for hours.

There has been chaos at Vienna Airport since Friday. The reason was numerous thunderstorm cells in Central and Eastern Europe, which meant that planes had to stay on the ground or take off with a massive delay.

Numerous unnerved passengers
Hundreds of passengers were stranded for hours, 50 even had to spend the night in the arrivals hall, according to an airport spokesperson. In some cases, anger ran high among the annoyed passengers. There was criticism that hardly any information was passed on, and one ground staff member left the counter exasperated when a discussion broke out with travelers. Even airport security had to intervene in some cases to calm passengers down.

The service center was closed.(Bild: zVg)

Several rebookings unsuccessful
Passengers waited up to 12 hours to find out that their flight had been definitively canceled, and rebooking did not always work - because many flights are simply fully booked during the peak travel season.

According to an Austrian Airlines spokeswoman, the situation had calmed down by midday on Saturday and all passengers should reach their destination by the evening. "We are doing everything we can to minimize the inconvenience for the passengers affected and to get them to their desired destination as quickly as possible," the statement continued.

Busiest travel day in history
Incidentally, top DJ Parov Stelar was also affected by a flight cancellation and apologized to his fans via social media for not being able to make it to his concert in Brussels. The German rock band Sodom was also stranded.

It was only on June 28 that Vienna Airport recorded the busiest travel day in its history.