Katowice International Airport

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Katowice International Airport
Międzynarodowy Port Lotniczy Katowice
Katowice airport logo.jpg
Pyrzowice Katowice Airport noc.JPG
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner/Operator Górnośląskie Towarzystwo Lotnicze (GTL) (Upper Silesian Aviation Group)
Serves Katowice, Poland
Location Pyrzowice
Focus city for
Elevation AMSL 304 m / 304 metres (997 ft) ft
Coordinates 50°28′27″N 019°04′48″E / 50.47417°N 19.08000°E / 50.47417; 19.08000 (Katowice International Airport)Coordinates: 50°28′27″N 019°04′48″E / 50.47417°N 19.08000°E / 50.47417; 19.08000 (Katowice International Airport)
Website katowice-airport.com
Map
Katowice is located in Poland
Katowice
Katowice
Location of airport in Poland
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
09/27 3,200 10,499 Concrete
Statistics (2016)
Number of passengers 3,221,261
Sources: Polish AIP at EUROCONTROL[1]
Statistics from Office of Civil Aviation[2]

Katowice International Airport (Polish: Międzynarodowy Port Lotniczy Katowice) (IATA: KTWICAO: EPKT) is an international airport, located in Pyrzowice, 30 km (19 mi) north of center of Katowice, Poland. The airport has the fourth biggest passenger flow in Poland.

History[edit]

Early years[edit]

The place where the Katowice International Airport is now located, was first used by German soldiers. In 1940 the Luftwaffe began construction of an airbase in the meadows around Pyrzowice. The Germans built three stone and concrete strips with a length of runway from 1000 to 1500 meters and 50 meters wide. The airbase was used for the handling of military aircraft, flying from the inner part of the German Reich to the aeroplanes taking supplies to troops on the Eastern Front. In the final phase of World War II, the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet powered aircraft missile systems have been tested here. After the death of Luftwaffe flying ace gen. Ernst Udet in 1941, the airfield was named Udetfeld.

From 1945 to 1951, Soviet Army's soldiers were stationed at the airbase. In the early 1950s, the Soviets handed the airbase to the Polish Air Force. It was then used by the 39 Fighter Regiment, created on 17 April 1951.

The airbase Pyrzowice was for the first time made available for passenger traffic on 6 October 1966, when the first plane of LOT Polish Airlines, taking off for Warsaw. By the end of 1969 year a small passenger terminal was built (550 m²) with a taxiway and apron front of the airport.

On 28 May 2015 a new runway with a length of 3 200 m was opened.

Development since the 1990s[edit]

In 1991 Górnośląskie Towarzystwo Lotnicze (GTL) (English: Upper Silesian Aviation Group) was created. On 27 March 1993 the German carrier Lufthansa flew to Frankfurt, thus inaugurating the first international service. Passenger Terminal B officially opened on 30 July 2007.

Katowice International Airport is constantly developing. Future plans include to extend the runway, the construction of a third passenger terminal, a new cargo terminal and a new runway.[3]

Facilities[edit]

Terminals[edit]

The airport features three passenger terminals A, B (departures) and C (arrivals) as well as a cargo terminal. Operations at terminal B, much bigger than A, started on 30 July 2007. Terminals are capable of handling about 3.6 million passengers annually.[4] Terminal A handles all non-Schengen flights, while Terminal B handles all Schengen flights. The longest airport observation deck in Poland can be found inside Terminal B. The operation of the newest Terminal C building (arrivals) started on June 27, 2015.

Runway and apron[edit]

The airports concrete runway is 3,200 by 60 m (10,499 by 197 ft) and can accommodate aircraft as large as Boeing 747 or Boeing 777, albeit not at Maximum Takeoff Weight.[5] Heavy transports such as Antonov An-124 or An-225 have been noticed to land there. The airport uses new generation Instrument Landing System - Thales 420.[6]

Airlines and destinations[edit]

Passenger[edit]

Airlines Destinations Terminal
Aegean Airlines Seasonal charter: Athens, Corfu, Heraklion B
Air Cairo Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Sharm el-Sheikh (begins 25 April 2017)[7] A
Arkia Charter: Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion A
Bulgarian Air Charter Charter: Burgas, Varna A
Corendon Airlines Charter: Antalya A
Ellinair Seasonal: Heraklion B
Enter Air Seasonal: Batumi, Burgas, Podgorica
Charter: Agadir, Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, Djerba, Dubai-International, Dubrovnik, Enfidha, Hurghada, Izmir, Marsa Alam, Monastir, Pula, Paphos, Sharm el-Sheikh
A
Enter Air Seasonal: Faro, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes
Charter: Chania, Fuerteventura, Girona, Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kos, Tenerife-South, Thessaloniki, Zakynthos
B
Freebird Airlines Charter: Antalya A
Israir Airlines Charter: Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion A
LOT Polish Airlines Warsaw-Chopin B
Lufthansa Frankfurt B
Nesma Airlines Charter: Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh A
Nouvelair Charter: Djerba, Enfidha, Monastir A
Onur Air Charter: Antalya A
Pegasus Airlines Charter: Antalya, Bodrum A
Ryanair Birmingham, Edinburgh (begins 29 October 2017), Dublin, London-Stansted A
Ryanair Athens, Hamburg, Milan-Malpensa
Seasonal: Corfu, Chania
B
Small Planet Airlines Poland Seasonal: Burgas, Varna[8]
Charter: Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh, Taba, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion, Tirana
A
Small Planet Airlines Poland Seasonal: Rhodes, Zakynthos[9]
Charter: Athens, Cephalonia, Corfu, Heraklion, Palma de Mallorca, Thessaloniki
B
SmartWings
operated by Travel Service Polska
Seasonal: Málaga (begins 8 June 2017)[10] B
SunExpress Charter: Antalya, Izmir A
Syphax Airlines Charter: Enfidha A
Travel Service Charter: Hurghada, Mombasa, Sharm el-Sheikh, Zanzibar A
Travel Service Charter: Barcelona, Fuerteventura, Lamezia Terme, Málaga, Tenerife-South, Zakynthos B
Travel Service Polska Charter: Burgas, Kavala, Ras Al Khaimah, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion, Tirana A
Travel Service Polska Charter: Fuerteventura B
Transavia Amsterdam (begins 9 May 2017)[11] A
Tunisair Charter: Djerba, Monastir, Tunis A
Wizz Air Belfast-International, Bristol, Doncaster/Sheffield, Dubai-Al Maktoum, Glasgow, Kiev-Zhuliany, Liverpool, London-Luton, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion
Seasonal: Burgas, Kutaisi
A
Wizz Air Barcelona, Bari, Beauvais, Bergamo, Bergen, Bologna, Catania, Cologne/Bonn, Dortmund, Eindhoven, Hahn, Lanzarote, Larnaca, Lisbon, Maastricht/Aachen, Malmö, Malta, Naples, Reykjavík-Keflavík, Rome-Fiumicino, Sandefjord, Stavanger, Stockholm-Skavsta, Tenerife-South
Seasonal: Alghero, Split (begins 18 June 2017)[12]
B

Cargo[edit]

Airlines Destinations
ASL Airlines Belgium Erfurt/Weimar, Liège
ASL Airlines Ireland Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Stuttgart
DHL Aviation Cologne/Bonn, Leipzig/Halle
Farnair Europe Cologne/Bonn
Poczta Polska
operated by SprintAir
Warsaw-Chopin

Statistics[edit]

Inside Terminal A
Terminal B
Inside Terminal B
Year[13] Passengers Air operations Cargo (tonnes)
1996 68,203 3,586 596
1997 101,054 4,290 1,241
1998 150,724 6,256 1,365
1999 170,230 6,510 1,522
2000 168,126 8,710 7,745
2001 180,015 9,441 2,196
2002 202,267 8,389 2,886
2003 257,991 9,375 3,548
2004 622,612 13,803 5,038
2005 1,092,358 16,222 5,636
2006 1,458,411 21,014 6,113
2007 1,995,914 24,489 7,795
2008 2,426,942 27,030 12,703
2009 2,364,613 26,206 6,543
2010 2,403,253 26,770 11,195
2011 2,544,124 29,259 12,138
2012 2,550,848 30,584 10,546
2013 2,554,198 28,990 10,877
2014 2,695,732 28,771 16,269
2015 3,069,279 31,727 16,119
Source: Lotnisko w Katowicach[14]

Ground transportation[edit]

By car[edit]

In 2006 express road S1 was opened between the Podwarpie junction and the airport. Thanks to this road the airport is easily accessible from Katowice and other cities of the region by national road 86 and from Kraków by A4 motorway or national road 94. The airport is also accessible by national road 78 and A1 motorway

By bus[edit]

There is an hourly bus service between Katowice city centre and the airport. The bus leaves every full hour from Katowice Main Railway Station and stops near Altus Building, Novotel Katowice and in Sosnowiec (Milowice Shopping Center).[15] It takes approximately 50 minutes to get from center of Katowice to the airport. Bus connections from other largest cities of the region, such as Kraków (about 75 minutes travel),[16] Częstochowa[17] and minibus - inter alia from/to Opole,[18][19] Wrocław[18][19] are also available. Local buses connect to the city of Bytom where one can change for bus to Katowice.

By rail[edit]

There is currently no passenger rail link to airport but building of a railway between Katowice and the airport is being planned.[20]

Accidents and incidents[edit]

  • On 27 October 2007, a Boeing 737-800 chartered by the UN destroyed dozens of approach and landing lights whilst making a low approach.[21] No passengers were injured, but the approach lights were out of service for three weeks.
  • On 12 March 2013, Travel Service Flight 7137, a Boeing 737, overran the runway while landing in snowy weather just before 19:00, its nosewheel getting stuck approximately 3 feet deep into the soft ground 20 metres beyond the runway. None of 176 passengers and 6 crew suffered any injuries, but the airport was closed until 17:00 the next day until the aircraft was recovered and taxied away.[22]
  • On 5 July 2014 Lufthansa Flight 1360, operated by Lufthansa Cityline landed on a new runway under construction. None of the passengers were hurt, and the aircraft later made a technical flight to land on the correct runway, as the runway being built had yet no tarmac connections to apron.[23]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "EAD Basic - Error Page". Retrieved 7 June 2015. 
  2. ^ Statistics from Office of Civil Aviation (ULC)
  3. ^ "Airport history" on the airport website
  4. ^ History of the airport, official airport website
  5. ^ "Boeing 747 8 Airport Planning Guide", Boeing.com. Link accessed 2007-08-22.
  6. ^ "Katowice Airport". Retrieved 7 June 2015. 
  7. ^ https://book.eu2.amadeus.com/plnext/AirCairo/TimeTable.action;jsessionid=99lDKpT_6RS4iU5queguLbaAAj8GfHDvndLUbF2zyorlcKB-dZcm!1371759428!-2055181822#/TIMR
  8. ^ Small Planet Airlines Poland open reservation for seasonal flights from summer 2017
  9. ^ Small Planet Airlines Poland open reservation for seasonal flights from summer 2017
  10. ^ http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/272124/smartwings-adds-new-polish-routes-in-s17/
  11. ^ http://www.routesonline.com/airports/2450/katowice-airport/news/269099/transavia-announces-new-route-from-katowice-to-amsterdam-/
  12. ^ http://www.exyuaviation.com/p/wizz-air-katowice-split.html
  13. ^ Annual statistics on airport website
  14. ^ "Annual Statistics". Katowice Airport. Retrieved 14 September 2015. 
  15. ^ (English) (Polish) "Time-table for autobus Fast bus number "Airport"" - KZK GOP page
  16. ^ (Polish) "Lotnisko w Pyrzowicach" on www.e-krakow.com
  17. ^ (Polish) "Częstochowa ma regularne połączenie z Pyrzowicami - Pyrzowiceekspres" - www.tur-info.pl
  18. ^ a b (Polish) "Dojazd, Airport Katowice" - www.airport-lotnisko.katowice.pl
  19. ^ a b (Polish) "Dojazd do lotniska Pyrzowice" - www.elotnicze.pl
  20. ^ (Polish) "Strategia a pragnienia roku następnego" - silesiainfotransport.pl
  21. ^ "Spanish 737's low approach wrecks Katowice Airport lighting" - Flight Global, 2007
  22. ^ "Stuck in the mud: Poland airport closes as plane skids off runway" - The Journal, 2013
  23. ^ http://www.mir.gov.pl/Transport/Transport_lotniczy/PKBWL/Rejestr_zdarzen/Documents/2014_0982_RW_EN.pdf

External links[edit]

Media related to Katowice-Pyrzowice Airport at Wikimedia Commons