Sky Lounge Vienna Airport
For years I steered clear of them, and I still don't know why. I finally put that right on the way back from Tel Aviv, with a layover in Vienna.
An airport lounge is a closed-off space past security that you can pay your way into for a single visit: food and drink are included in the price, comfort and above all a calm you won't find anywhere else at the airport. The Vienna one is called Sky Lounge, it sits in Terminal 3, and its buffet is a small showcase of Austrian cooking.
Turkey Meatballs, Cheese Noodles and Two Strudels
The buffet follows a simple formula: always one meat dish, one vegetarian and a few sides. On my visit that meant turkey meatballs, cheesy noodles - the Austrians call them Kasspatzln - and beautifully seasoned roast carrots with spring onion, plus sandwiches, brownies and a bowl of apples, pears and bananas. The strudels had the last word, though: next to the apple one stood an excellent quark Topfenstrudel, and it's the strudels that tell you you're in Vienna. Just don't let Vienna claim it as its own too quickly - apple strudel may pass for a symbol of Viennese coffee houses, but its stretched pastry traveled to the city from Ottoman cooking by way of the Balkans, and the first documented Viennese recipe dates from 1696. Even a dessert from an airport display case has a long journey with connections behind it.
A Bar Stocked With Nothing but Austrian Wines
The drinks surprised me more than the food did. International lounges usually play it safe with the global standard - prosecco and faceless varietal wines. At Sky Lounge, the bar held only Austrian bottles when I was there, and not just any. The red Small Hill comes from the Burgenland winemaker Leo Hillinger, one of the best-known organic growers in Austria, and the white Grüner Veltliner came from the family-run Josef Dockner winery in Kremstal. The red DoN Red and the sparkling DoN Brut Grande Cuvée carry the name of Josef Donhauser's catering group DoN, which has stocked the lounge since 2021 and favors smaller regional producers as it does so. Rauch juices kept things Austrian too, pressed by the family firm of the same name for over a hundred years, and there was of course a selection of spirits, coffee and tea.
How Getting Into the Lounge Works
Paid lounges are a young layer of airport life. Airline clubs have been around since 1939, when American Airlines opened its Admirals Club in New York, but getting in takes a business class seat or loyalty status. The model where you simply buy yourself some quiet, the way you'd buy a movie ticket, only spread around the turn of the millennium, and it has already grown a subculture of its own: reviewers collect and grade lounges the way other people bag mountain peaks. You can get into Sky Lounge on any ticket - pay your way in on the spot, or use programs like Priority Pass and LoungeKey, which tend to come as a perk with premium bank accounts and credit cards. Istanbul's iGA Lounge runs on the same principle. It's open daily from 4:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., and your stay is capped at three hours. One warning: forget about a runway view - the lounge may be called Sky, but it has no windows onto the tarmac.
Two Hours Before Closing Time
I got to Sky Lounge about two hours before closing time, expecting to be scraping up leftovers. Instead the staff kept topping the spread back up, and empty plates disappeared from the tables almost the moment they were left there. I tried both reds - Small Hill struck me as wonderfully drinkable and DoN Red held its own; the sparkling didn't win me over, and I never made it to the white, which was chilling in style in a big metal tub full of ice. There was plenty of seating and everything was clean, the airport announcements came through muffled, and a big screen kept an eye on departures. A single entry on the Revolut travel card came to 720 CZK (28.80 EUR), and you can get in free as well, as a perk with certain credit cards. I've rarely paid more gladly for two hours in which absolutely nothing happened around me.
Sky Lounge
