Guide to Innsbruck - Kranebitten Airport (INN / LOWI)

Often referred to as "The Heart of the Alps", the city of Innsbruck is surrounded by spectacular mountain scenery with summits towering as high as 8,000 ft. The narrow valley guarantees fascinating approaches for crews, passengers and aviation photographers alike. Most of the traffic is generated in the winter season with the majority of movements at the weekends, when dozens of airlines from Britain, Scandinavia and the Netherlands bring holidaymakers to Tyrol. Their Airbuses, Avroliners as well as Boeing 737's and 757's dominate the scene. In the winter season 2009/10, there were an increasing number of flights also during the week, particularly by Transavia and EasyJet. Sadly, the incoming flights from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have been mostly taken over by Austrian companies like Austrian and Niki. Sibir with its colourful A 319's was still operating to INN in the last winter season, and there is always a fair share of more exotic visitors from CIS countries in January around the Orthodox Christmas holidays, for instance VIM Air from Russia. Do not expect too many Russian built types though: the Yak 40's and 42's have become pretty rare due to more stringent noise regulations at the airport. Check out Hawkeye's Spotters Forum (Link "Wochenflugplan" at bottom of page!) for details and information at short notice. Among the most frequent airlines are Thomas Cook, Monarch, EasyJet, FlyBE, Thomsonfly, British Airways, Finnair, SAS, SAS Norge, Atlantic Airways, Malmoe Aviation, Transavia, Lufthansa and TUIfly. Newcomers in the winter timetable 2009/2010 were Air Berlin and JetTime; Blue 1 is expected to operate its multi-coloured Boeing 717's into INN during the winter season 2010/2011.
In summer, the majority of flights are outgoing charters to Mediterranean holiday destinations operated by Austrian/Lauda, Niki, Sun Express, Travel Service, Hamburg International and Air Malta with fewer incoming flights from Britain, the Netherlands, Germany or Scandinavia (EasyJet, Thomsonfly, Viking, FlyBE, Transavia, Air Berlin, Finnair). Checking the website of Innsbruck Airport is worthwhile before planning a spotting trip. Scheduled operations concentrate on feeder services to the Star Alliance hubs of Vienna and Frankfurt, but Austrian Arrows and Austrian/Lauda also operate numerous IT-flights. All their Boeing 737's (and occasionally 767's), Airbuses, Fokker 70's and 100's and Dashs can easily be spotted at Innsbruck - and with breathtaking backdrops too! In the low-cost sector, SkyEurope has been replaced by Niki, which usually operates the flights to Vienna with their all-new Embraer 190's while their Airbuses still visit INN on IT-flights. The winter season sees more A 319's on the VIE-connection due to their enhanced avionics.
The number of bizjets at INN keeps increasing, notably also BBJ's and aircraft in the Global Express and Gulfstrem 5 class as well as the occasional Falcon F7X, and their sleek contours stand out beautifully in front of the snow-capped mountains.
The airport has one runway (08/26) and two main taxiways (A/B), all visible from the terrace of the terminal building.

The airport is served by bus line F, which runs from the railway station and the city centre every 15 mins (30 mins at weekends) and takes about 15 mins, single fare: EUR 1.70; car park fee at the airport: EUR 1.50 per hour.

Please Note: Air band receivers are not allowed in Austria.