Published: 3/27/1998

Warsaw Okecie International Airport is about to reach its limits. In 1997, over four million passengers were served by the facility which has a capacity of 4.5 million passengers. Annual increase of passenger flows observed over the last few years is approximately 16%. This may lead to Okecie reaching its limits even before the end of this year. More than $US100 million are being invested in the construction of a new terminal, located 300m east of the current one. When both are operational, in the year 2000, the annual capacity will increase to 7.5 million passengers, a figurelikely to be reachd by 2010. With the airport being overloaded in 1999, it is possible that some of the operations - mainly charter ones - will be moved out to other locations like Kracow, Poznan, Gdansk or Katowice, and those carried from Okecie might be moved to night hours, but this does not necessarily solve the whole problem, as the flow of scheduled passengers will be still very strong. Apart from the new terminal, the infrastructure at Okecie is still being developed. The most important ones are the new roads system distributing arrivals into the city communication system, as well as fast train connections to the city, which might offer the most efficient solution. These are expected to be ready at the beginning of the next century. The second terminal is good only as a temporarily solution. It is expected that between the years 2010 and 2012, Warsaw will have to have another airport put into operation. Its location has not been fixed yet, but it might be one of the former military airfields located near Warsaw: Modlin and Sochaczew have both been phased out of military service. However, both of these are about 30-40 km away from the city. Some observers believe it would be possible to create a new terminal opposite the old one, on the other side of Okecie's main runway. This might lead to airfield extension towards the area to the South. The whole investment is estimated to be about $US10million, and its construction will take 5-7 years. According to the Polish Airport Authority General Manager, Mr Solek, Warsaw has a good chance to become a major Central European hub, however, Prague and Budapest are also competing. (MM) (AP398.1)

Article ID: 132