As in the two previous years, in 2010 a total of more than one million passengers were carried by passenger vessels on the Austrian Danube. The majority was accounted for by the approx. 680,000 passengers travelling on liner services (+1.4% over 2009). Cabin vessels carried about 245,000 cruise passengers (+8.9%). About 115,000 people were transported on non-scheduled services such as theme, special and charter trips (-8.0%).

In 2010, a total of 112 different cabin vessels with a capacity of 17,500 passenger places operated on the Austrian section of the Danube – a decrease of 3.5%, or four vessels, compared to 2009. On the one hand five newly built cabin vessels were put into service, while on the other hand nine vessels shifted their operating routes to Western European waterways compared to the previous year. Although the number of passenger cabin vessels declined, the total number of kilometres travelled increased. From a total of 3,319 journeys (+3.4% over 2009) some 245,000 cruise passengers were transported in 2010. In the long-term comparison with 2002, this figure indicates an increase in passenger numbers by an impressive 106%. Being the most important place of departure and arrival for river cruises, the Bavarian Danube port of Passau recorded 1,742 landings by 111 cabin vessels and 220,000 handled passengers (+6.5% over 2009).

In 2010, liner services on the Austrian Danube were operated by a total of 27 vessels with a capacity of 8,900 passenger places. DDSG Blue Danube reported 206,000 passengers (+2.5% over 2009) travelling on its liner services in the Wachau region and in Vienna. The two Twin City Liners carried 125,725 passengers (-3.4%) on the route between Vienna and Bratislava. Donau-Touristik transported 50,805 passengers on its liner services (+19.5%). Departing from Tulln, 3,002 passengers travelled on the MS Stadt Wien. The Slovakian and Hungarian hydrofoils, operating on the routes Bratislava–Vienna–Bratislava and Budapest–Vienna–Budapest, recorded 41,253 passengers (+0.8%). The Bavarian operator Wurm + Köck carried a total of 35,000 passengers (-7.9%) on its liner services on the routes Linz–Schlögen–Linz and Linz–Wien–Linz.

Non-scheduled services were provided by 42 passenger vessels (including the vessels primarily operated on liner services) with a total capacity of about 12,000 passenger places. DDSG Blue Danube carried 65,000 passengers (-20.7%) on non-scheduled services. Other operators of non-scheduled services included schiffART Linz~Donau with 13,000 passengers, Donau-Touristik (Linz) with 9,557 passengers, Nostalgie Tours Wachau (Krems) with 2,756 passengers and the MS Stadt Wien (Tulln) with 1,300 passengers carried. Finally, the Slovakian and Hungarian hydrofoils recorded 2,597 passengers travelling on non-scheduled services on the Austrian Danube in 2010.

Other companies operating liner or non-scheduled services on the Austrian Danube have not provided their figures for the period under review. Since passenger transport data on the Danube in Austria ceased to be statistically recorded in 2003, due to a revision of legal foundations, the aforementioned figures for liner and non-scheduled services also include estimations which are based on an average capacity utilisation of 40% for trips on passenger vessels.