275,000 visitors at Airpower

Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen – Commander-in-Chief of the Army – also stopped by in Zeltweg on Saturday. The organizers were initially satisfied with the new sustainability concept of the “climate-friendly” air show.

According to the army, around 125,000 spectators showed up on the first day of Airpower on Friday. On the second day, around 150,000 interested people came, which makes a total of 275,000 people. In 2019 it was around 300,000. According to a spokesman for the federal army, counting takes place at the entrances to the security checkpoints with small hand-held counters, similar to stopwatches. In any case, the weather was extremely flight and visitor friendly – sunny and not too hot. According to the organizers, around nine million euros in added value are said to have remained in the region. “Every innkeeper had a smile on his face,” said a senior army officer.

For Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, there was little progress during his visit on Saturday at noon: rows of people wanted to take selfies with him, and the President was obviously happy to do so. Van der Bellen had Airpower project manager Brigadier Wolfgang Prieler brief him on the procedures and inspected the grounds of the air base from the tower.

After the view of the huge event area and the crowds of spectators, the Federal President was shown the successor to the proven but aging Alouette III helicopter, the AW169M from the Italian manufacturer Leonardo. Some army pilots have already been trained in Italy for this type. Van der Bellen said he was aware of the large backlog of investments in the device and paid tribute to the Alouette III helicopter and the pilots and technicians: “No car would drive that long.”

In terms of arrival traffic, Saturday morning was busier than Friday. At this time, car traffic was already slow at the entrances to Zeltweg West and East. Around noon it was backed up on all access roads, the influx was unbroken. As the police reported on Twitter, increased arrival traffic was to be expected until 1 p.m. At this point, people were already advising against arriving by car.

Judging by the license plates, most of the viewers came from Lower and Upper Austria, Vienna, Styria and the Czech Republic, but also from Germany, Poland, Slovenia and Croatia. Tyrolean license plates could also be seen in the parking lots. In addition, some special trains from Salzburg, Linz, Vienna and Graz were expected on Saturday. A total of around 18,000 places (2019: 36,000) were available, which were not fully occupied on Friday.

The program was largely identical to Friday’s, with one of the highlights expected to be the low-altitude flypast of two US B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers, which will fly about 100 meters above the airfield. Airpower employs over 6,000 people, most of them soldiers. The Airpower ends around 5 p.m.

Around 200 aircraft from 20 nations, including around 50 from the army, provided an eight-hour show program on Saturday. According to the organizers, a comprehensive environmental concept should ensure a more sustainable event than on previous occasions through short transport routes, climate-friendly arrival and a lot of regional food. The experts surveyed assessed the measures taken as positive in some cases, but also as insufficient in others.