Direct trains from Brno to Vienna Airport starting this year

A direct train from Brno to Vienna International Airport should begin operation later this year, and a pilot trip will take place later this month. Direct train service between the two cities already exists, but it does not include an airport stop.

Brno is closer to Vienna than it is to Prague, and the Vienna Airport also offers a wider range of international destinations. As a result, many people from Brno and the surrounding area prefer to fly from Vienna.

Getting to the Vienna Airport, though, involved either taking a private bus or making a change in Vienna to an airport express train, which is a bit complicated for people with luggage.

Representatives of the City of Brno and the South Moravia region announced their intention to create a direct train connection to Vienna Airport last November. The first pilot journey will leave Brno’s main station on Feb. 22 at 9:30 am. It should have stops at Břeclav and Vienna’s main station before arriving at Vienna Airport at 11:19 am. It will return at 1:10 pm.

The train ride, which is under two hours, will shave some time off the bus ride, which takes two hours and 20 minutes.

Representatives of the Brno City Council, the South Moravian Regional Council, the Ministry of Transport, Czech Railways, the Regional Chamber of Commerce of South Moravia, the Regional Chamber of Commerce Brno, CzechTourism, the South Moravian Tourism Center, and TIC Brno, as well as Austria’s honorary consul in Brno, have promised to take part in the pilot trip. Another car on the train will be available for members of the general public.

Transport news server Zdopravy.cz said the first train will be operated by Gepard Express, which currently runs an airport bus connection. Cars for the train will be rented from Czech Railways (ČD) and the Railway Company of Slovakia (ZSSK).

No concrete date for launching regular service has been announced. “I believe that we will be able to start the whole project at least partially in 2022,” Brno City Councilor Petr Kratochvíl, responsible for transport, said in December 2021, when the South Moravia region approved Brno’s plan for the train link.

“One way to achieve this is a faster, more convenient and, above all, direct train connection between Brno and Vienna Airport,” she added.

A working group was established at that time to coordinate talks between the Czech side, including Brno, the South Moravia region, and the Ministry of Transport, and the Austrian side, which includes the operators of the Vienna Airport and Austrian Federal Railways.

While Brno does have Brno–Tuřany Airport, currently it is mostly used for freight planes, and not passenger planes. Efforts to interest international carriers in stopping there have been unsuccessful, largely due to the proximity of larger nearby airports in Vienna and Bratislava, as well as Prague.