A beekeeper in charge of more than 100,000 pollinators at Austria’s largest airport has underlined the insects’ essential role.
Martina Pillitsch and her husband Alexander run a hobbyist apiary in Sommerein, a small town 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Vienna International Airport (VIA).
But Martina – who has worked as a recruiter at VIA for 15 years – also manages the airport apiary’s three locations consisting of 750,000 bees altogether.
She warned: “Without bees, there would be no fruit and vegetables.”
Speaking to the business news website Leadersnet, the beekeeping expert emphasised: “Around 75 per cent of our crops are pollinated by bees.”
The multi-faceted flora around VIA is an ideal location to produce honey, according to Martina.
VIA Real Estate Director Wolfgang Scheibenpflug told Leadersnet: “Sustainability is of great importance to us. As of this year, the airport is operating carbon-neutral.”
The vast expansion of its photovoltaic energy production is the core element of VIA which is located a few kilometres southeast of Vienna.
The four-terminal aviation hub registered almost 23.7 million passengers in 2022.
