An announcement last month that LOT Polish Airlines will return its direct long-haul service between Kraków and Chicago from July 2017 after a seven year absence provides a fitting end to what will certainly be remembered as one of the most successful years in the airport’s history.
The expanded offering will boost its available capacity by 19 percent to 450,000 annual seats and will include a new twice weekly link to the recent Routes Europe host city, Kraków, in Poland. It will also extend summer routes to Faro, Gran Canaria and Malta into the winter schedule, adding to its current flights to Alicante, Malaga and Tenerife.
UK leisure carrier Jet2.com will introduce a second route to this year’s Routes Europe host city of Kraków this week after the success of its current Newcastle – Kraków service that has been in operation since March 2011. The airline took time away from its busy Routes Europe meeting schedule to join senior officials from Kraków Airport to help promote the event on the second day of the air service development forum.
Kraków has always been, in many respects, a charmed city. With a history that dates back to the 4th century settlement of Wawel Hill, Kraków has fortuitously avoided destruction, growing into one of the most prominent cities in Central Europe. A city of majestic architectural monuments, cobbled thoroughfares, cultural treasures, timeless courtyards, priceless artworks and legendary beer cellars and gardens, Kraków’s historic centre is the pride of Poland.
The aviation industry is heading to Poland for the 11th annual Routes Europe forum in Kraków this weekend to plan future European air services (23-26 April).
The host of this year’s Routes Europe, Kraków’s John Paul II International Airport, has gained from Poland’s accession to the European Union and is now firmly established as the country’s second largest gateway.
The aviation sector in Poland plays an important role in the country’s economy and its network connectivity is unrecognisable today to that when the country joined the European Union in 2004, around 15 years after the end of communist rule. Routesonline investigates how point-to-point connectivity has helped put the country’s developing regional cities on the network map.
Krakow’s John Paul II International Airport is an excellent example of the changes that have occurred in the Polish aviation market over the last couple of decades. These have provided network connectivity today that is unrecognisable to when the country joined the European Union in 2004 as point-to-point connectivity has helped put the country’s developing regional cities on the network map.
The Polish market has contributed significantly to Wizz Air's success with around 40 per cent of its phenomenal growth linked to Polish customers and visitors in and out of the country. Next year it will again play host to Routes Europe.
The airline will operate three routes from Eilat Ovda Airport in the far south of the country, near the border with Jordan. Initially, flights will operate to and from Budapest in Hungary, Kaunas in Lithuania and Krakow in Poland.
Following a highly successful Routes Europe 2015 in Aberdeen, Scotland, attended by around 1,200 delegates from the aviation and tourism industries, Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire councils will later today officially hand over to Kraków Airport and its partners, the Małopolska Kraków Region and the City of Kraków for the 2016 event.
A recent social media report by ACI Europe shows the ways in which European airports are using social media to communicate with their customers. We’ve broken the report down to analyse each social media platform separately, and add some of our own insights.
The carrier will introduce new scheduled services from Amsterdam to Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK; Krakow, Poland and Montpellier, France from May 18, 2015 with flights to be operated by its KLM cityhopper regional business.
This will be the only link between London Heathrow and Krakow, which will be the host city of Routes Europe in 2016. Alongside the point-to-point demand it will also facilitate transfer traffic to and from the wider network of British Airways and its oneworld partners from and to the UK capital.
