Upper Austria approves purchase of Linz Airport stake
Thursday 1st October 2026 on 19:00 in
Austria
Upper Austria’s state parliament has approved the state’s purchase of the city of Linz’s 50 percent stake in Linz Airport, ORF reported Thursday. The ÖVP, FPÖ and SPÖ supported the deal, while the Greens, MFG and NEOS opposed it, citing concerns about the risks of running the airport profitably.
The Linz municipal council had already approved the sale. The provisional purchase price is 1.325 million euros. The state is aiming for a partial privatisation of up to 49 percent in the medium term.
Before the airport can be offered to a strategic investor as a financially consolidated business, it will need a further 5 million euros in 2027. That would be in addition to up to 36 million euros in start-up funding for the Linz-Frankfurt route, to be paid over four years.
The provisional price reflects a KPMG report that put the airport’s liquidation value at between 1.9 million and 3.4 million euros. A separate discounted cash flow valuation found a negative going-concern value of 17.3 million euros. The method estimates a company’s value based on expected future earnings.
Passenger numbers at Linz Airport fell by 13.5 percent in July and August to 68,699, the steepest decline among Austria’s regional airports, according to Statistics Austria. The number of flights dropped 16.6 percent to 890, while freight volumes fell 37.5 percent year on year to 1,713 tonnes.
FPÖ parliamentary leader Thomas Dim called the airport an essential hub for Upper Austria’s industrial base. ÖVP parliamentary leader Margit Angerlehner said that if the state concluded it needed an international airport, it should have the courage to stand by that decision.
The SPÖ backed the government proposal but called for sound planning, efforts to attract inbound tourists to Linz and a search for investors. NEOS parliamentary leader Felix Eypeltauer said merging two public owners did not amount to reform. Green parliamentary leader Severin Mayr said there was “no plan”, while MFG member Joachim Aigner warned against keeping open a “million-euro drain” on taxpayers.