John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice Międzynarodowy Port Lotniczy im. Jana Pawła II Kraków-Balice
IATA: KRK - ICAO: EPKK
Summary
Airport type		Military/Public
Operator		GTL
Serves		Kraków
Elevation AMSL		791 ft (241 m)
Coordinates		50°04′40″N, 19°47′05″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
07/25	8,366	2,550	Concrete
Statistics (2005)^[1]
Number of Passengers			1,564,338
Aircraft Movements			27,358
Cargo			5,738 t

John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice (Polish: Międzynarodowy Port Lotniczy im. Jana Pawła II Kraków-Balice) (IATA: KRK, ICAO: EPKK) is a two terminal international airport located near Kraków, in the village of Balice, 11 km west of the city, in the south of Poland.

1 History and present circumstances
2 Expansion Plans
3 Getting there
4 Flights
5 Airlines and destinations
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History and present circumstances

The airport opened for civil aviation in 1964. Earlier, there was an older airport operating at Kraków-Rakowice-Czyżyny, now the site of the Polish Aviation Museum.

The current Kraków airport is the second biggest one in the country after the Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport, and is the leading Polish regional airport. The Kraków airport has very good prospects for development, as almost 8 million people live within 100 kilometers of it. It also has a favourable location in the network of existing and planned motorways in this region of Poland.

In 1995 the airport's name was changed from Kraków-Balice Airport to John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice, after Pope John Paul II who spent many years of his life in Kraków.

In 2003, when Irish low-fare airline Ryanair was said to be interested in starting its service from the John Paul II International Airport, the airport authorities refused to reduce the airport fee. In response, the regional authorities of Kraków and Lesser Poland Voivodeship decided to build a new airport near the existing one, using the infrastructure of the military airbase adjacent to the shared runway. Finally an agreement was reached, and the existing airport was opened to Ryanair and other low-cost carriers such as SkyEurope, Germanwings, easyJet and Centralwings.

In May 2006 an express rail link between Kraków Główny station and the airport in Kraków-Balice was inaugurated. Travel time from the city centre to a temporary train stop situated 200 m from the airport terminal is 15 minutes.

On March 1st 2007 a separate domestic terminal (T2) was opened; passengers departing to Warsaw and Gdańsk now check-in in the new building, located a five minute walk further round the apron, from the main terminal building.

[edit] Expansion Plans

The main terminal building (now referred to as T1) is currently being expanded to cater for the enormous growth in passengers the airport has witnessed in the last two years. The terminal is being extended towards the apron, five airbridges being added and separate facilities prepared for Schengen and non-Schengen passengers. The next phase involves the construction of a multi-storey carpark opposite T1. It is also expected that the railway line may at one point be rerouted to the terminal building rather than the current temporary stop 200 metres from the T1.

[edit] Getting there

Express train from Kraków Główny to the airport runs every half an hour, takes 15 minutes and costs 4 zł.
Bus 192 from the airport runs every half an hour (or hour off-peak), takes approximately 30 minutes to reach the Planty and costs 2.50 zł (the cost my vary, pricing is the same as the one for all Kraków's buses/trams)
By car, the journey takes around 20 minutes depending which direction you approach the airport from.

[edit] Flights

The number of flight destinations from the Kraków airport is growing every year. In 2005 there were more than 1.5 million passengers, a nearly 95% increase over 2004. In 2006 there were more than 2.3 million passengers, an increase of 50% over 2005. That gives the Kraków Airport 15% of all passenger traffic in Poland in 2006. The most important international destinations are London (Gatwick, Stansted, and Luton) and Dublin.

SkyEurope bases a lot of its flights at the Kraków airport, and it has more flights originating in Kraków than any other airline, including LOT Polish Airlines.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

Aer Lingus (Dublin)
Air Europa (Madrid) [starts 1 July 2007]
Alitalia
- operated by Alitalia Express (Milan-Malpensa)
Austrian Airlines
- operated by Austrian Arrows (Vienna)
British Airways (London-Gatwick)
Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
Centralwings (Bologna, Cork, Lisbon [Starts June 6,2007], London-Gatwick, Rome-Ciampino)
Czech Airlines (Prague)
Direct Fly (Berlin-Schönefeld [starts 4 June 2007], Gdańsk)
easyJet (Belfast-International [starts 24 April 2007], Bristol, Dortmund, Liverpool, London-Gatwick [starts 5 September 2007], London-Luton, Newcastle )
Finnair (Helsinki [seasonal])
Germanwings (Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart)
Jet2.com (Leeds-Bradford, Newcastle)
LOT Polish Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare, Frankfurt, Newark [Starts June 2007], New York JFK [Starts June 2007], Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Tel Aviv, Warsaw)
- operated by Eurolot (Vienna, Warsaw)
Lufthansa
- operated by Lufthansa CityLine (Munich)
Malév Hungarian Airlines (Budapest)
Norwegian Air Shuttle (Oslo, Stockholm-Arlanda)
Ryanair (Dublin, Frankfurt-Hahn, Glasgow-Prestwick, Liverpool, London-Stansted, Shannon)
SkyEurope (Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Birmingham, Brussels, Dublin, Dubrovnik [starts 16 June 2007], London-Stansted, Manchester, Milan-Orio al Serio, Naples, Palermo [starts 16 June 2007], Paris-Orly, Rimini [starts 16 June 2007], Rome-Fiumicino, Split, Thessaloniki [starts 16 june 2007], Torino, Venice)
Sterling Airlines (Copenhagen)