Lublin Airport

Lublin Airport
Port Lotniczy Lublin
IATA: LUZ – ICAO: EPLB
Summary
Airport type Public
Serves Lublin, Poland
Location Świdnik
Opened December 17, 2012 (2012-12-17)
Focus city for Wizz Air
Elevation AMSL 193 m / 633 ft
Coordinates 51°14′25.00″N 022°42′49.00″E / 51.2402778°N 22.7136111°E / 51.2402778; 22.7136111Coordinates: 51°14′25.00″N 022°42′49.00″E / 51.2402778°N 22.7136111°E / 51.2402778; 22.7136111
Website airport.lublin.pl
Map
LUZ

Location of the airport in Poland

Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
06/24 1,200 3,937 Grass
07/25 2,520 8,267 Asphalt
Statistics (2015)
Passengers 265,357
Aircraft Movements 3,732
Sources: GCM,[1] STV[2]

Lublin Airport (Port Lotniczy Lublin) (IATA: LUZ, ICAO: EPLB) is an airport in Poland serving Lublin and the surrounding region. The site is located about 10 km (6.2 miles) east of central Lublin, adjacent to the town of Świdnik. The airport has a 2520 × (45 + 2 × 7.5) m runway, and the terminal facilities are capable of handling 4 Boeing 737-800 class aircraft simultaneously.[3] Construction began in the fall of 2010[4] and the official opening took place on December 17, 2012.[5][6] The new airport replaced the grass airstrip (1200 × 50 m) which served the PZL-Świdnik helicopter factory and was known as Świdnik Airport with the ICAO identifier EPSW.

History

Early years

The construction of the Świdnik airfield began in 1935 and it was officially opened on June 4, 1939.[7] It was to serve as a training centre with a pilot school, and was built by the Airborne and Antigas Defence League, a mass organisation propagating aviation among the general public. During World War II, it was used by the Luftwaffe after Poland was occupied in September 1939, and then by the Soviet Air Force once Lublin was captured by the Red Army in July, 1944. The Germans destroyed the airfield's buildings before withdrawing.

After World War II

The airport opened for passenger traffic on 30 November 1945. A domestic service was opened with flight number 1/2 that flew the route Warsaw – Łódź – Kraków – Rzeszów – Lublin – Warsaw. There is little literature on the early domestic services from Lublin airport. The route was later discontinued and Lublin lost all domestic services. In 1949, the Polish government made a decision to build an aviation factory in Świdnik, located next to the airfield.[8] It assembled its first helicopters in 1956, with full-scale production beginning in 1957.[9]

The factory employed some staff from the pre-war Lubelska Wytwórnia Samolotów, an airplane manufacturer in Lublin that functioned from 1936 to 1939, being itself the successor of Plage i Laśkiewicz factory which functioned between 1920 and 1935. That factory had its own airfield within the Lublin city limits,[10][11] but it was closed and built over after the war. One of the streets running through the area where the airfield used to be is named Lotnicza (Aviation Street).

Current facilities

The need for an air terminus in Lublin, the 9th biggest city in Poland, has been felt for the better half of 20th century. In 2008, the project received €84.1 million financing backing from the European Union.[12] Subsequently, the airport design competition was won by a Polish-Spanish consortium of SENER Ingeniería y Sistemas (engineering & master plan) and Warsaw-based architectural firm ARÉ (architecture).[13] The architectural design was well received by the design community; however the fit and finish of the completed terminal building fell short of the winning proposal.[14] The contract to build the runway was signed in August, 2011, with completion in late 2012.[4] Operations commenced on December 17, 2012 with a Category I instrument landing system.[4]

A Reuters special report in December 2014 highlighted Lublin Airport (along with Łódź and Rzeszów airports) as a target of inefficient EU subsidies with disappointing passenger numbers.[15]

In July 2016, Lufthansa announced to terminate its route from Frankfurt Airport to Lublin due to low demand by 29 October 2016 after only two years of service.[16]

Airlines and destinations

AirlinesDestinations
Ryanair London-Stansted
Seasonal: Dublin
Small Planet Airlines (Poland) Seasonal: Barcelona (begins 1 May 2017), Burgas, Heraklion (begins 21 June 2017)[17]
Wizz Air Doncaster/Sheffield, Eindhoven, Glasgow, Liverpool (begins 21 May 2017), London-Luton, Sandefjord, Stockholm-Skavsta

Passenger statistics

Terminal interior.
Traffic by calendar year[18]
Passengers Change Movements
2012 5,702 50
2013 189,699 Increase3226.9% 2,246
2014 187,595 Decrease1.1% 3,254
2015 265,111 Increase41.3% 3,732

2015

Month Passengers Passengers Cumulatively Aircraft Movements Aircraft Cumulatively
January 13 129 13 129 178 178
February 11 524 24 653 167 345
March 12 529 37 182 190 535
April 16 577 53 759 224 759
May 18 666 72 425 366 1125
June 24 629 97 054 378 1503
July 27 983 125 037 361 1864
August 27 216 152 253 373 2237
September 29 328 181 581 398 2635
October 29 726 211 307 390 3025
November 25 600 236 907 338 3363
December 28 204 265 111 369 3732

Ground transportation

Train

Train at airport terminal station

Lublin Airport is accessible by rail, with a train station inside the airport terminal. The connection to Lublin's main railway station is provided by modern EMU (Electric Multiple Unit), EN57AL series 3000. The journey takes approximately 15 minutes from Lublin Central Station.[19] Ticket costs 5,3 PLN (~€1,3).[20]

Bus

There is a dedicated bus service to the airport, with a flexible schedule, which starts its run to the airport 2 hours before each flight departure, and leaves the airport 25 minutes after flight arrival.[21]

Car

The airport is located close to Expressway S17.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Airport information for LUZ at Great Circle Mapper.
  2. ↑ Airport information for Lublin Airport at Search (for) Travel website.
  3. ↑ Data from official website
  4. 1 2 3 "Lotnisko w Świdniku: Rusza budowa pasa startowego". Kurier Lubelski (in Polish). August 8, 2011.
  5. ↑ "Airport. Wielka przeprowadzka lotniska na... lotnisko". gazeta.pl. November 20, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Lublin Airport: Polecimy nad morze, na Wyspy i do Egiptu". Dziennik Wschodni. March 10, 2012.
  7. ↑ Wielki dzień Lublina! - article from www.historia.swidnik.net
  8. ↑ 1978 map of Świdnik, showing the factory and adjacent helicopter landing pads. The airfield itself (not marked as such) is in the empty area to the west of the factory buildings
  9. ↑ Powstanie WSK article from www.historia.swidnik.net
  10. ↑ 1932 map with the old Lublin airfield marked
  11. ↑ German military map with old Lublin airfield highlighted
  12. ↑ Commission gives go-ahead for finance packages for airports at Lublin and Gdańsk
  13. ↑ article from bustler.net, the sister site to the leading architecture platform, Archinect
  14. ↑ article from dezeen.com, an online architecture and design magazine
  15. ↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-airports-specialreport-idUSKBN0JS06K20141214
  16. ↑ pasazer.com - Lufthansa kasuje loty z Lublina (Polish) 10 July 2016
  17. ↑ http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/270161/small-planet-expands-lublin-service-in-s17/
  18. ↑ "Figures and Statistics. Lublin Airport.". Lublin Airport. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  19. ↑ Lublin Airport
  20. ↑ Wyszukiwarka połączeń kolejowych rozkład jazdy pkp.pl
  21. ↑ Bus timetable per link from official site

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