Wizz Air and Ryanair are cutting Vienna flights: what to book instead
Photo: Stanislav Doronenko · CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Key Highlights
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+3 more in the takeaways below
Wizz Air flew 85 flights a week out of Vienna in September 2025, spread across 21 routes. By the week of 22 March 2026 that number was 19 flights on 6 routes, and every one of the six connects Vienna to Central Europe, the Caucasus or the Eastern Mediterranean, not to a Western European leisure destination.
Barcelona, Malaga, Tenerife, Hurghada and Tel Aviv are gone from Wizz Air's Vienna page. So are Bilbao and London Luton. Ryanair has pulled five aircraft from the same airport over roughly the same stretch, and it is not finished.
Here is the part worth knowing before you open a booking site. This is not one airline having a bad year at Vienna. Ryanair is shrinking for the same reason Wizz Air left entirely, and that reason is an Austrian tax that is not going away this winter. Once you know that, the workaround stops looking like a mystery and starts looking like a habit.
- Wizz Air is completely gone from Vienna as of 15 March 2026, the final phase of a base closure the airline announced on 10 September 2025.
- Ryanair has cut five aircraft from Vienna since winter 2025 and closed three routes, citing Austria's aviation tax.
- The cause is a government levy, not a business decision. Austria charges 12 euro per departing passenger, or 30 euro on flights under 350 kilometers.
- The workaround is a 70 minute bus ride. Wizz Air itself points Austrian customers to its Bratislava and Budapest bases instead.
- Not every route has a good replacement. Several cancelled routes served destinations with thin demand and no obvious low-cost substitute.
What actually happened at Vienna airport
Wizz Air announced on 10 September 2025 that it would close its Vienna base, its only base in Austria, in two phases. Two aircraft and two routes, to Bilbao and London Gatwick, came off the schedule on 26 October 2025. The remaining three aircraft and every other route stopped flying on 15 March 2026.
Before the closure, Wizz Air's Vienna base ran five Airbus A321neo aircraft on 28 routes to 20 countries, a network built since 2018. What is left, as of the week of 22 March 2026, is six routes: Chisinau, Cluj, Kutaisi, Larnaca, Sibiu and Yerevan. Every route a leisure traveler would actually book, including Barcelona, Malaga, Tenerife South, Funchal, Hurghada, Jeddah, Tel Aviv, Tirana, Pristina, Ohrid, Suceava and Tuzla, is cancelled.
If you already had a booking on one of the withdrawn routes, Wizz Air's own rebooking and refund process works the same way as any other airline schedule change. Our guide to getting your money back after a flight gets cancelled covers what you are actually owed and how to ask for it.
Ryanair's cuts are smaller in absolute terms but point the same direction. The airline pulled three aircraft from Vienna for winter 2025 and closed three routes, then confirmed two more aircraft leaving for summer 2026. Ryanair's Vienna base still operated 19 aircraft as of late October 2025, after the first three cuts and before the two more announced for summer 2026.
Why this is happening: Austria's own aviation tax
Austria's own aviation tax is the cause both airlines name. It's a Flugabgabe, an air transport levy Austria has charged on every departing passenger since 2020. The current rate, as of September 2026, is 12 euro per passenger on most flights, and 30 euro on flights under 350 kilometers, the distance band the government uses to discourage short hops where a train exists.
Ryanair's own numbers put the levy in context. The airline says the tax raises about 160 million euro a year nationally, against what it calls a lost 200 million dollar investment from the two aircraft it is removing for summer 2026 alone. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary has said Austria has become hopelessly uncompetitive, and Austrian Airlines chief Annette Mann has made a similar case about her own airline's costs.
Austria has become hopelessly uncompetitive.
Michael O'Leary, Ryanair Group CEO, September 2025
The government has not scrapped the tax. Infrastructure Minister Peter Hanke has said the levy cannot be abolished "in view of the budgetary situation," even while staying open to talks. Vienna Airport itself has pushed the other way, backing Ryanair's position and calling a lower tax a "necessity." It has offered the one concrete concession so far: a fee cut of almost five percent for 2026, bringing charges back to roughly their 2015 level.
We'd read that gap as the honest signal here. A five percent airport fee cut next to a national tax that funds 160 million euro a year is not a settlement in the works, it is two sides still far apart. Booking on the assumption that Wizz Air returns to Vienna, or that Ryanair's cuts reverse by next winter, is booking on a guess.
| Period | Weekly Wizz Air flights from Vienna |
|---|---|
| Before closure (Sep 2025) | 85 |
| After closure (Mar 2026) | 19 |
That is a drop of more than three quarters in Wizz Air's own Vienna schedule, and it happened inside a single winter.
Three ways to still book a cheap flight from Vienna this winter
You still have options. The easiest one used to be typing "Vienna" into a search box on Wizz Air's site, and it no longer is.
- Check who inherited the route first. A handful of Wizz Air's old Vienna routes already have a full-service or charter replacement, usually at a higher fare than the defunct ultra low cost ticket, so search the destination directly on a flight aggregator before assuming it is gone entirely.
- Treat Bratislava as an extension of Vienna airport. Wizz Air's own closure announcement tells Austrian customers to keep flying with the airline from Bratislava and Budapest instead, and Bratislava is genuinely close.
- Price the workaround into the ticket, not around it. Run the numbers the way we break down in what budget airlines hide behind their headline fares, since a pricier direct Vienna ticket sometimes already includes what a Bratislava fare plus a bus would cost you anyway.
The second habit does most of the work, so it is worth being specific about it.
What the Bratislava workaround actually costs
Slovak Lines runs a bus from Vienna's main train station to Bratislava Airport 12 times a day, seven days a week. The trip takes 70 minutes with no stops, and one way tickets start at 7.90 euro as of September 2026, cheaper the earlier you book.
Photo: Steven Lek · CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
That is the whole workaround. Board at Wien Hauptbahnhof, ride 70 minutes, and you are at the same airline's check in desk in a country that never taxed it out of business, with Bratislava's own airport waiting on the other end. Wizz Air still operates an extensive network from both Bratislava and Budapest, and neither base is affected by the Vienna closure.
If you already treat Vienna's rail network as an extension of the city the way our guide to day trips from Vienna by train does, this is the same habit pointed at an airport instead of a museum.
| Option | Extra time | Extra cost | Worth it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bus to Bratislava (BTS) | ~70 min each way | from €7.90 one way | The Wizz Air fare from BTS beats the best Vienna fare by more than the bus costs |
| Direct from Vienna (VIE) | 0 | 0 | A remaining carrier still flies your route and the fare gap is small |
| Train or drive to Budapest (BUD) | ~2.5 hrs each way | varies by mode | Bratislava has no seats left and the saving is still large |
We'd only go as far as Budapest if Bratislava genuinely had nothing on the dates we wanted. The extra ninety minutes each way eats into whatever the ticket saved.
Save the bus ticket and the new boarding pass the way you would any other travel document, in one folder or an app like TripProf, not split across two email inboxes.
Where the gap actually hurts
The gap hurts most on routes with no good replacement. Wizz Air's Vienna network carried real, thin, unglamorous demand alongside the beach routes, and some of it has nowhere obvious to go.
Photo: Anna Zvereva · CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Pristina and Tirana carried seven and four weekly Wizz Air flights, serving Vienna's sizable Kosovar and Albanian communities. Ohrid, Suceava and Tuzla ran two to three flights a week each, connecting Austria to smaller regional airports that few full-service carriers bother with. A traveler visiting family on one of those routes is now weighing a connection through Budapest or Bratislava, likely on the same airline anyway, against a full fare itinerary through a hub.
Assuming a route "moved" to another airline just because Vienna airport still lists a similar destination. Check the actual flight number and operating carrier, not just the destination name, before you book.
Jeddah is the starkest example. Wizz Air ran four weekly flights there before the closure, and no low-cost carrier has stepped in with a direct replacement from Vienna. We'd budget for a full fare or a connection on that route, not wait for a discount carrier to fill the gap.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wizz Air completely gone from Vienna?
Yes, as of 15 March 2026. Six routes remain from Vienna, Chisinau, Cluj, Kutaisi, Larnaca, Sibiu and Yerevan, carrying 19 weekly flights combined, and no others were announced as staying.
Why did Wizz Air leave Vienna?
Wizz Air cited rising airport costs, taxes and ground handling fees at Vienna, saying continued operations there had become incompatible with its ultra low cost model. Ryanair and Austrian Airlines cite the same Austrian aviation tax for their own cuts.
Is Bratislava airport really close to Vienna?
Yes. A direct bus from Vienna's main train station reaches Bratislava Airport in about 70 minutes, with tickets from 7.90 euro one way and departures roughly every hour.
Will Ryanair keep cutting Vienna flights?
Possibly. Ryanair has removed five aircraft from Vienna since winter 2025 and says further cuts depend on whether Austria changes its aviation tax, which the government has already ruled out abolishing.
Does Austria's aviation tax apply to every flight?
It applies to every departing passenger from an Austrian airport, at 12 euro on most routes and 30 euro on flights under 350 kilometers, a band meant to discourage short hops a train could cover.
Are there still cheap flights to Spain or Portugal from Vienna?
Some flights to Spain and Portugal from Vienna remain, typically at higher fares than Wizz Air charged. Compare directly against a Bratislava or Budapest fare on the same dates before assuming Vienna is still the cheaper departure point.
Key takeaways
- Wizz Air is fully gone from Vienna since 15 March 2026. Only six routes remain, none of them leisure destinations.
- Ryanair has cut five aircraft from Vienna since winter 2025, and further cuts are tied to Austria's aviation tax.
- Austria's own flight tax is the root cause, not one airline's strategy, so treat the shrinkage as this winter's normal, not a blip.
- Bratislava airport is a 70 minute bus ride from Vienna's main station, and Wizz Air itself points its Austrian customers there.
- Some routes have no good replacement, particularly the smaller regional and diaspora routes Wizz Air used to carry.
- If your winter trip is now two bookings instead of one, keep the confirmations together. A trip planner like TripProf keeps travel documents organized by trip, so nothing gets lost between a bus ticket and a boarding pass.
Sources
- Wizz Air: official announcement of the Vienna base closure, the two phase timeline, and the Bratislava and Budapest alternative, 10 September 2025.
- AeroRoutes: route by route breakdown of cancelled Wizz Air Vienna flights and the before and after weekly totals, 7 October 2025.
- Ryanair: corporate announcement of the additional two aircraft cut for summer 2026 and the airline's own tax revenue estimate.
- The Local Austria: coverage of the October 2025 cuts, Minister Hanke's response, and Vienna Airport's position.
- The Local Austria: explainer on the aviation tax debate, including quotes from Ryanair's and Austrian Airlines' leadership.
- Austrian Unternehmensserviceportal (USP): official government page listing the current Flugabgabe rates.
- Slovak Lines: schedule, journey time and fares for the Vienna to Bratislava Airport bus.
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