Multiple flights canceled, the remainder diverted to another airports. Passengers stuck in the terminal for hours were wasting time first and then hoping that their holiday-new year vacation would succeed. Fogs that paralyzed traffic at Kraków Airport at the turn of the erstwhile year, were among any of the most burdensome in fresh port history. But they weren't new.
As long as the airport is struggling with fog, travellers have heard that a strategy is needed to solve the problem at the airport to guide the starting or landing aircraft erstwhile visibility is weak.
— In April we will know if the ILS strategy can be installed on the existing runway says Janusz Kardasiński from Kraków Airport. But in fresh years, another message has been coming from the port: The strategy won't be there until there's a fresh runway in Balicia.
Jarek Praszkiewicz / PAPFog at Kraków Airport 29.12.2024.
The swelling traffic at Kraków Airport. And medals for PiS earners
This version was presented by the erstwhile Kraków Airport authorities. Since 2016, he was closely associated with PiS and erstwhile Prime Minister Beata Szydło Radosław Włoszek. A fewer days ago, from president Andrzej Duda (now as president of a Malopolska railway company) he was awarded a gold medal for "deserved for the improvement of transport". During the same ceremony, a erstwhile Minister of Infrastructure from PiS was honored with the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, and present an MP Andrzej Adamczyk.
UMWM / UMWMerstwhile president of Kraków Airport Radosław Włoszek receives a gold medal from president Andrzej Duda for his contribution to the improvement of transport
For 8 years, the president of the airport and the Minister of Infrastructure frequently stood together at press conferences or hosted local radio and told stories about how Balice airport will be a pearl driving regional tourism and the economy. This improvement was to be served by the General Plan adopted by them in 2020, which included the expansion of the passenger terminal or the construction of the runway in a completely fresh variant.
The Italian airport was indeed thriving. The network of connections swelled, with millions of more passengers arriving all year. In 2016, Kraków Airport served little than 5 million passengers, erstwhile the president left the post in 2023, it was almost 9.5 million passengers.
“It was a lost time”
However, the port from year to year became a hostage to this success. The capacity-counted 8 million people a year began to match a henhouse, in which, especially during holidays and weekends, passengers nest and wait in long queues for check-in. And the runway is already in specified a condition that it needs to be renovated during night breaks in air operations. What about the construction of a fresh one, which, as announced by the PiS-related team, was originally to be ready in 2021?
—— It can be said that today, after 8 years of planning to build the runway, we are at the starting point, we have not taken a step. It was a lost time. “The current president of Kraków Airport Łukasz Strutyński says.
Łukasz Gągulski/ PAP / PAPpresident of Kraków Airport Łukasz Strutyński
In short, he summarizes the years erstwhile his predecessors at all costs were pushing for investment in specified a variant, which not only raised public opposition, but besides a number of remarks from officials. The construction of the fresh runway was protested by the airport neighbors, who indicated that the proposed deviation of the flight way meant life in sound and polluted air for them. Socialists besides pointed out shortcomings in the documentation on the impact of the investment on the Olszanicki creek or Natura 2000 sites in the vicinity of the airport. They besides argued that in its application for an environmental decision, the airport did not take into account the social option.
The case lasted for years first before Krakow, later before the Kielce RDC and went all the way to the ultimate Administrative Court. There was a minute erstwhile the Ministry of Infrastructure wanted to bypass the laborious procedures and the runway to build on the basis of a specist. That plan was besides blown. As a consequence of subsequent decisions by officials and courts, the Kraków Airport authorities were forced to correct the errors in the documentation and the full procedure concerning the environmental decision had to start from the beginning.
Kraków Airport authorities with an “optimistic variant” for runway
What does that mean? — In an optimistic variant in November 2025 we will receive an environmental decision. We presume that she will besides be challenged, but we do not anticipate the action to be justified. Then by November 2027 we intend to choice a contractor for construction works, says Janusz Kardasiński from the port board. The construction of the fresh runway is to take place in 3 stages. The first 1 (a 1.8 km long section) should be completed by September 2029. The second phase will include the construction of a full 2.8-kilometre runway, and the 3rd will include the construction of fast exit roads and the demolition of part of the existing runway. The full investment is to be put into operation by July 2031.
Kraków Airport / Kraków AirportFirst phase of construction of a fresh runway at Kraków Airport
The applicants for airport plans claimed that alternatively of building a fresh road, port authorities could renovate the existing one. The erstwhile president of the airport called this script a financial disaster, claiming that the renovation would force the port closure for long months.
But the fresh runway repair board calls it "Plan B". “This is simply a contingency plan that we do not want to prosecute due to the fact that we do not want to close the airport for 3 months, but we must have specified a plan,” says Cardassian. — If individual had thought of it before, during the pandemic, you could have renovated the belt without failure “ He stresses.
Cardassia besides explains that before the fresh road is created it is considered to bring the ILS strategy to the Balice. As he claims, the decision to install it (requires considerable interference in the airport plate) will be made by April of this year. — If we get a green light and the strategy is mounted on an existing road, nothing stands in the way to decision it to a fresh runway in the future, says Cardassian.
"We would have built a terminal that would have exhausted its capabilities immediately"
But apart from the deficiency of the ILS strategy and the fresh runway among the burning problems that the Kraków Airport authorities must solve, there is simply a tight passenger terminal. Its expansion was besides thought of by the predecessors, but this had to be improved, due to the fact that their plans were besides restrained. The General Plan envisaged the creation of a fresh terminal, which will be able to operate about 12 million passengers per year in 2031. In the meantime, the airport will most likely evidence specified a consequence by the end of 2025.
— In carrying out this project, we would have built a terminal that would immediately exhaust its capabilities,” says president Strutyński, adding that the area for manoeuvre to change the investment plan is very limited. — We already have an environmental decision and a construction licence to grow the terminal. Any extremist change would make it essential to get fresh permits and we would lose more time “the president explains.
But he adds that any changes in cooperation with designers have been implemented. Thanks to these, capacity is expected to oscillate around 19 million passengers, to be more than expected by the Gates General Plan, check-in stations and safety control posts. The Kraków Airport authorities announce the acquisition of fresh tomographic devices and the employment of additional persons controlling travellers. This is intended in the short word (before a fresh terminal is created) to liquidate passenger traffic and accelerate clearance.
Will there be a bill for the predecessors? ‘Company bodies will deal with this’
That's not all. The temporary terminal with 8 goals will be located in the current cargo building (April 2026), and freight traffic will be transferred to the recently built facility. Its formation was besides part of the General Plan worth PLN 1 billion and managed to implement it for about PLN 80 million. There's already a licence to usage it.
The Kraków Airport authorities, speaking of lost time on the way to the airport expansion, do not specify the financial costs for the port. But are they going to settle their predecessors with their decisions? — The company's bodies will handle this — briefly corresponds to Onet president Strutyński. But what has happened in Kraków Airport in fresh years, he knows from the inside. due to the fact that before he became president of the Board in 2024, he sat (since 2018) on the Supervisory Board of Kraków Airport. Even earlier (2013-2016) as a associate of the port board he was liable for investments.
