A lot of “NEW” things are happening within the Lufthansa Group over the next week. As no doubt you know if you’ve been reading my posts, Lufthansa’s first Boeing 747-8i enters passenger service this Friday when she flies from Frankfurt to Washington DC. But thats not the only first for passengers.

On June 5th, Austrian will officially open to the public their new dedicated Star Alliance Terminal at their main hub in Vienna (VIE). Austrian will consolidate all of their aircraft operations to this new facility.

The terminal promises to be a work of art that will provide passengers with a streamlined travel experience. This terminal is actually “rated” to allow passengers to transfer with as little as 25 minutes between connections. This beats Munich, currently rated as one of Europe’s best at 45 minutes.

The new 150,000 sq. meter (164,000 sq. yd) terminal will boast 69 Check-In Counters and 40 self service kiosks along with dedicated Check-In areas for Business and Star Alliance Elite Level passengers. Additional, new Lounges will also be open as part of the new terminal. New lounges will include HON Circle/First Class, Senator/Star Alliance GOLD and Business Class lounges. Based on my experiences in transiting through Vienna, this in itself will be a major upgrade!

The terminal will be a very open facility, with walls of windows that will provide great viewing of Aircraft and the rest of the airport.

Images courtesy of Austrian Airlines:

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For an interactive guide of the new terminal, please follow this link.

Of course there is one minor downside to all this……as part of my trip to Frankfurt, I’m taking a couple of days in Slovakia to visit family which will involve flying in and out of Vienna over this weekend, so I will just-just-just miss experiencing the new facility first hand. I’m hoping there’s a “soft opening” and perhaps the facility is already operating.