Austrian economic news in a flash - December 14

The number of passengers at Vienna Airport rose 12.1% to 1.55m in November 2010, with cargo volumes decreasing 3% to 27,661 tonnes. The airport served 18.2m passengers in the first eleven months of the year, 8.9% down in annual terms.
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Austrians are expected to spend about EUR 2.5bn for Christmas presents this year, a study of the Integral market research institute showed. The sum corresponds to EUR 390 per person, up from EUR 364 a year earlier.
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The opening of Austria's mail market will not happen as of January 1 despite the adopted liberalisation regulations, Wirtschaftsblatt reported. This is because of the high fixed costs which the peers of Austrian Post AG will have to take if they want to deliver mail in the country.
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The takeover of insolvent AE&E Austria GmbH by machinery group Andritz was filed for approval with the country's anti-trust authorities.
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ATB Austria Antriebstechnik, part of insolvent A-Tec, reduced its sales 1.8% to EUR 231.8m in the first nine months of the year. The company said it still remained in the red in terms of net and operating profit. ATB sees uncertainty in its future due to the insolvency proceedings against A-Tec and sister company AE&E.