East to New Europe

One does not have to go all the way back to the postwar era captured in Carol Reed's film noir masterpiece "The Third Man" to recall a time when Vienna was a popular conduit between East and West for the movement of people and goods.
Until the end of the Cold War, Austria's status as a member of the nonaligned community of nations and its geographic location astride the Iron Curtain enabled flag carrier Austrian Airlines to develop an effective route network into the East Bloc and USSR, while Vienna Airport itself became the preferred gateway for such journeys.