Demoted Vienna airport chief takes MIA supervisory post

Problems with the Skylink project at Vienna International Airport – the owners of MIA – have led to the departure of chief executive Herbert Kaufman, who will now head the supervisory boards of Malta and Kosice airports for the next two years.

Zipperer instead has been moved to commercial director of Vienna Cont, the container subsidiary of VIA. Kaufman however has taken €350,000 in severance payments.

An audit by the Austrian federal accounting office found that the Skylink project had been beset by delays and cost overruns. Also investigated were Kaufman’s strong links with the Viennese social democrat party SPÖ. Kaufman, a former elected SPÖ politician, has been blamed over the business scandals that plagued the Skylink project and which led to investigations of several companies by state prosecutors.

VIA’s new Skylink project aimed to give the airport a passenger capacity of 24 million passengers a year. But the airport was forced to postpone the opening date several times: June 2008 was scheduled as opening date when construction started in 2005 – before a report by weekly magazine Profil uncovered that VIA was unable to keep costs at €400 million as it had been announced. Total construction costs would amount to close to €830 million.

The provincial governments of Vienna and Lower Austria hold shares in Flughafen Wien AG as well.

The reshuffle sees VIA co-chairmen Gerhard Schmid and Ernst Gabmann stay on until December 2011. Supervisory board chairman Christoph Herbst has been appointed to succeed Kaufmann. He will serve from 1 January to 31 December 2011.

Zipperer’s successor in Malta is so far MIA deputy chairman Jackie Camilleri, who is now acting chairman.