Polish Airports’ Shares Transferred To $8 Billion Superhub Developer

The shares of state-owned Polish Airports (PPL), which has stakes in 12 airports across Poland, have been transferred to Centralny Port Komunikacyjny (CPK), the investor behind the country’s planned $8 billion multi-modal superhub near Warsaw.

Government plans for PPL to join the CPK Capital Group as a joint-stock company were first announced last October, creating a new enterprise that brings together the main assets and investment processes for airport infrastructure in Poland.

PPL owns three airports—Warsaw Chopin Airport, Warsaw Radom Airport and Zielona Góra Airport—as well as having stakes in a further nine. They include regional airports in Gdańsk, Katowice, Kraków, Poznań, Rzeszów and Wrocław.

CPK is developing a new airport located about 25 mi. from Warsaw that will integrate air, rail and road transport. The first phase of the airport project will accommodate approximately 40 million passengers per year and is expected to be completed by 2028.

The company is also a railway investor that is behind the proposed construction of approximately 1,200 mi. of new high-speed lines, as well as 2,300 mi. of modernized lines.

“The integration of PPL into CPK will bring a number of positive results,” says Marcin Horała, Poland’s deputy minister of funds and regional policy and government plenipotentiary for CPK.

“Firstly, this will create a strong capital group that manages the most important state-owned airport assets. Secondly, the consolidation will make the CPK Capital Group dominant in our European region.

“Thirdly, this move will improve the construction of CPK’s infrastructure, which will ensure the continuation of Chopin Airport’s functions in a new location to a better standard and guarantee an increase in the number of jobs.”

The contribution of PPL’s shares worth PLN6.4 billion ($1.5 billion), alongside a government bond issue for CPK worth PLN3.6 billion, increases CPK’s share capital to PLN11.5 billion. The funds from the bond issue will be used to continue the preparation, design and construction of the new airport.

According to the general plan for CPK, which covers development at the airport through 2060, the airport is targeting a 2028 opening with two parallel runways and capacity to handle 40 million passengers. By 2060, the airport aims to have three parallel runways and capacity to handle 65 million passengers annually.

UK-based Foster+Partners has been selected as the airport’s master architect. Lebanese firm Dar Al-Handasah is the designated master civil engineer.

Mikołaj Wild, CEO of CPK, says the takeover of PPL ensures a “coherent development” for Poland’s aviation sector. “It enables us to better integrate investment activities and the objectives of the CPK program, to prepare for the transfer of civil traffic, and to test the technologies that will subsequently be used at the new airport,” he adds.