Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Salzburg Airport, branded Salzburg Airport W. A. Mozart, lies on the western edge of the city of Salzburg, close to the German border and ringed by the Alps, making it a distinctive and demanding VFR destination. It is Austria's second-largest airport, equipped with a single hard-surfaced runway, full ILS and radar approach service, and it has a long aviation history stretching back a century.
Salzburg Airport (ICAO: LOWS, IATA: SZG), branded Salzburg Airport W. A. Mozart, is Austria's second-largest airport and serves the city of Salzburg, the country's fourth-largest, as well as being a well-known gateway to the region's ski areas. For a simulator pilot the field is notable for its dramatic mountain setting, with high terrain close to the approach paths, and for its long-running aviation heritage, including a period of wartime military use and, more recently, its role as a base for Red Bull's Hangar-7 collection of historic and unusual aircraft.
The airport sits about 1.7 nautical miles west-south-west of Salzburg's city centre and roughly 2 kilometres from the Austrian-German border, in mountainous terrain typical of the Salzburg region. It is a controlled aerodrome served by its own approach and tower frequencies, reflecting its status as a busy scheduled and charter airport rather than a simple grass strip.
Salzburg has a single physical runway, 15/33, with a hard, lit surface measuring 8365 feet as runway 15 and 8231 feet as runway 33. An ILS is available for runway 15. Field elevation is 1411 feet.
Salzburg is served by Approach on 123.725 MHz, ATIS on 125.725 MHz, Ground on 121.75 MHz and Tower on 118.1 MHz. An ILS approach is provided to runway 15.
Salzburg Airport was seized at the outbreak of the Second World War, on 1 September 1939, and from 1943 it was placed under the control of the Luftgaukommando VII in Munich. In the autumn of 1944 the newly developed Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter appeared at the airfield. In the post-war decades the airport developed into a significant civil gateway: in 2001 the low-cost carrier Ryanair began flying to Salzburg, its first Austrian destination and the first time an Austrian airport hosted a low-cost operator, and in 2005 Aer Lingus commenced flights from Dublin for the winter schedule. In May 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Wizz Air announced six new routes to the airport, while in the same period Austrian Airlines ended its own service from Salzburg to its Vienna hub after 60 years, partly owing to expanded Railjet high-speed rail links between the two cities. The airport marked its centenary in 2026 with a public festival attended by more than 15,000 visitors, celebrating its role as a gateway, employer and driver of regional growth.
Salzburg remains an active scheduled and charter airport, having carried close to 1.8 million passengers in 2025, and it continues to invest in its infrastructure, including a new hangar completed in 2026 as the first step of a wider modernisation programme and further planned investment in a new terminal landscape. The field also hosts Hangar-7, home to a well-known collection of historic and unusual aircraft, and offers a public viewing terrace overlooking the apron, the hangar and the surrounding fortress and mountain scenery.
