Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport

Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport
Port Lotniczy Łódź
im. Władysława Reymonta
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Port lotniczy Łódź im. Władysława Reymonta Spółka z o.o./Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport Ltd.
Serves Łódź
Focus city for Adria Airways
Elevation AMSL 185 m / 607 ft
Coordinates 51°43′19″N 019°23′53″E / 51.72194°N 19.39806°E / 51.72194; 19.39806 (Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport)
Website lotnisko.lodz.pl/en
Map
Łódź
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
07L/25R 2,500 8,202 Asphalt
07R/25L 700 2,297 Grass
Statistics (2014)
Passengers 253,772
Source: EUROCONTROL[1]
Statistics from the Civil Aviation Office[2]

Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport (IATA: LCJ, ICAO: EPLL), formerly known as Łódź-Lublinek Airport, is a regional airport in central Poland, located approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) southwest of the Łódź city center. Łódź ranked 8th among Polish airports in 2013 in passenger numbers. The airport has been in operation since 13 September 1925 and has recently undergone a number of upgrades, enabling it to handle services by low cost airlines to destinations in Europe.

History

Check-in desks

Early years

Łódź airport opened on 13 September 1925. During World War II, the German occupying forces improved the airport for military use, by building a concrete 1,200 m (3,937 ft) runway. In the immediate postwar years, the airport was a key transport hub, but that role diminished by the 1950s with the development of Warsaw airport. By the end of the decade, regular passenger connections to Łódź were suspended. Efforts to restart passenger traffic were undertaken in the 1990s.

In 1997 a new passenger terminal (capacity approx. 50,000/year) was opened. Since 1997 Port Lotniczy Łódź-Lublinek sp. z o.o. (Lodz-Lublinek Airport LLC) has been the operator of the airport, changing its name in 2007 to Port Lotniczy Łódź im. Władysława Reymonta Sp. z o.o. (LODZ WLADYSLAW REYMONT AIRPORT LLC).

Development since the 2000s

On 31 October 2002 an ILS/DME System (instrument landing system/distance measuring equipment) was installed at the airport.

In September 2005, the runway was extended from 1,443 m (4,734 ft) to 2,100 m (6,890 ft) in order to accommodate larger aircraft, such as the Boeing 737. On 28 October 2005 a new passenger terminal, Terminal 2 (capacity approx. about 300,000/year) was opened. Two days later, the first Boeing 737 in the history of the Łódź Airport landed. On 19 January 2007 the runway extension to 2,500 m (8,202 ft) was put into use.

In June 2012 the brand new Terminal 3 with a capacity for 1.5 - 2 million passengers per year was opened.[3] The capacity is more than 5 times that of the old terminal. Terminal 2 was dismantled and sold to Radom for their new airport.[4] Due to low passengers numbers, Łódź Airport has been cited as an example of inefficient use of EU subsidies.[5]

The airport has been renamed after the celebrated 20th century Polish writer and the winner of the 1924 Nobel Prize in Literature, Władysław Reymont.

After the A2 motorway between Łódź and Warsaw opened in 2012, which reduced the travel time between the two cities to about one hour, the Łódź airport has faced tougher competition from the two Warsaw airports (Warsaw Chopin and Warsaw-Modlin). As a consequence, the number of passengers using it has fallen.[6] The airport no longer has any domestic destinations since the bankruptcy of OLT Express in July 2012, which had also planned a number of international services. With the completion of the A2, Warsaw is now only 1 hour from Łódź by road, meaning an air service between the two cities is no longer viable.

Airlines and destinations

AirlinesDestinations
Adria Airways Amsterdam, Munich, Paris-Charles de Gaulle[7]
Enter Air Seasonal charter:[8] Antalya, Burgas, Chania, Heraklion, Rhodes
Ryanair Dublin, East Midlands, London-Stansted

See also

References

  1. ↑ EUROCONTROL basic
  2. ↑ Civil Aviation Office of Poland (Polish)
  3. ↑ http://lotnisko.lodz.pl/pl/news/pokaz/226/Otwarcie_Nowego_Terminala
  4. ↑ http://www.dzienniklodzki.pl/artykul/607645,lodzki-terminal-pojedzie-do-radomia,id,t.html?cookie=1
  5. ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-airports-specialreport-idUSKBN0JS06K20141214
  6. ↑ Article from June 21, 2014
  7. ↑ http://www.exyuaviation.com/2016/04/adria-to-expand-lodz-network.html
  8. ↑ http://www.enterair.pl/map/show

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