Copernicus Airport Wrocław

Copernicus Airport Wrocław
Port Lotniczy Wrocław
im. Mikołaja Kopernika
IATA: WRO – ICAO: EPWR
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Wrocław Airport Company
Serves Wrocław, Poland
Hub for Ryanair, Wizzair, Enter Air
Elevation AMSL 123 m / 404 ft
Coordinates 51°06′10″N 016°53′09″E / 51.10278°N 16.88583°E / 51.10278; 16.88583Coordinates: 51°06′10″N 016°53′09″E / 51.10278°N 16.88583°E / 51.10278; 16.88583
Website airport.wroclaw.pl
Map
EPWR

Location in Poland

Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
11/29 2,500 8,202 Concrete/Asphalt
Statistics (2014)
Number of Passengers 2,085,638 Increase
Aircraft Movements 24,970 Increase
Source: polish AIP at EUROCONTROL[1]

Wrocław–Copernicus Airport (Polish: Port Lotniczy Wrocław im. Mikołaja Kopernika) (IATA: WRO, ICAO: EPWR) is an international commercial airport in Wrocław in southwestern Poland. The airport is located 10 km (6.2 mi) southwest of the city centre. It has one runway, two passenger terminals and one cargo terminal.

History

Early years

The airport was built in 1938 as Flugplatz Breslau-Schöngarten Airport for German military purposes before World War II.[2] It was operated briefly by Soviet forces following the war before being used for civilian purposes in 1945. Services were operated to Warsaw, Łódź, Poznań and Katowice. By 1992 destinations also included Kraków, Rzeszów, Gdańsk, Szczecin and Koszalin.

'Port Lotniczy Wrocław S. A.' was established as a company in January 1992 and Wrocław airport assets operated by the state owned Polish Airports authority were transferred to the company in January 1993.

The first international flights were inaugurated in January 1993, serving Frankfurt, Germany. Significant airport improvements have been completed in recent years. A new international departures terminal was opened in May 1997 followed by a new domestic terminal in November 1998. A cargo terminal, international arrivals hall, and installation of a new meteorological system were completed in 1999; new fire station and apron extensions in 2000; new air traffic control tower and duty-free area in 2001.

Development since the 2000s

On December 6, 2005 the airport was renamed after the famous astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (in Polish: Mikołaj Kopernik), who in Wrocław studied and received a scholarship, and in 1503 was scholastic Wrocław Collegiate Holy Cross and St. Bartholomew. The airport's new name is Copernicus Airport Wrocław (Port Lotniczy Wrocław im. Mikołaja Kopernika). Terminal extensions were officially opened on the same day, increasing the airport's capacity to 750,000 passengers per year. This capacity was quickly exceeded by several hundred thousand (in the first 9 months of 2007 the airport served 972,505 passengers) so the existing terminal space was expanded by 1,900 m2 (20,451 sq ft) to alleviate some of the congestion, but more importantly make the terminal facilities conform to the requirements of the Schengen Agreement, which was implemented at Poland's airports on 31 March 2008.

On 19 July 2006 the architectural firm JSK was chosen to design a significant airport expansion. This includes plans for a new passenger terminal (eventually, after several stages of expansion, the airport will be able to handle 7 million passengers yearly), a runway extension to 3,000 m (9,843 ft), and assorted taxiway, apron and navigation equipment improvements (ILS). Also, car parking will be expanded to 1,000 spaces, and a conference centre with a hotel will be built on site. The first stage, increasing the passenger capacity to 3,5 million yearly, officially opened on February 29, 2012. However, the new terminal opened to passengers on Sunday March 11, 2012. in 2015 Ryanair announced that it has selected Copernicus Airport Wrocław (Port Lotniczy Wrocław im. Mikołaja Kopernika) for its aircraft maintenance base. The construction of the hangar to fit C-type aircraft (Boeing 737) is underway. The airport has upgraded to ILS system from category I to Cat. II in April 2016.

Facilities

The airport operates modern domestic, international and cargo terminals. The international terminal contains a duty free area in the international departures hall. The cargo terminal, located beside the fire station and air traffic control tower, west of the passenger terminals, has a storage area of 3,300 m2 (36,000 sq ft), a bonded warehouse, freezer and radioactive materials warehouse.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

AirlinesDestinations
Aegean Airlines Seasonal charter: Corfu
Bulgarian Air Charter Seasonal charter: Burgas, Varna
Corendon Airlines Seasonal charter: Ercan
Enter Air[3] Seasonal charter: Agadir, Antalya, Barcelona, Bodrum, Burgas, Chania, Corfu, Dubrovnik, Enfidha, Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Gran Canaria, Heraklion, Hurghada, Kalamata, Kos, Málaga, Marsa Alam, Monastir, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Thessaloniki, Sharm el-Sheikh, Varna, Zakynthos
Eurowings Düsseldorf
LOT Polish Airlines Warsaw-Chopin
Lufthansa Frankfurt, Munich
Lufthansa Regional
operated by Lufthansa CityLine		 Munich
Nouvelair Seasonal charter: Bodrum, Enfidha, Monastir
Pegasus Airlines Seasonal charter: Antalya
Ryanair Beauvais, Belfast, Bergamo, Bologna, Bristol, Cork, Dublin, East Midlands, Girona, Glasgow, Lisbon (begins 28 March 2017), Liverpool, London-Stansted, Madrid, Malta, Manchester, Newcastle, Palma de Mallorca (begins 28 March 2017), Rome-Ciampino, Shannon, Tenerife-South, Warsaw-Chopin[4]
Seasonal: Alicante, Chania, Málaga, Treviso[5]
Scandinavian Airlines Copenhagen
Small Planet Airlines Poland Seasonal charter: Agadir, Corfu, Heraklion, Paphos, Rijeka, Rhodes, Zakynthos
SprintAir Radom[6]
Transavia Amsterdam (begins 9 May 2017)[7]
Travel Service Seasonal charter: Antalya, Burgas, Corfu, Dalaman, Fuerteventura, Funchal, İzmir, Lanzarote, Malta, Paphos, Palma de Mallorca
Wizz Air Birmingham, Doncaster/Sheffield, Dortmund, Eindhoven, Kyiv-Zhuliany,[8] London-Luton, Sandefjord, Stockholm-Skavsta

Cargo

AirlinesDestinations
Amazon.com
operated by ASL Airlines Ireland 		Kassel, Doncaster/Sheffield
SprintAir Warsaw-Chopin

Statistics

Interior of Terminal T2
Terminal T1

Following are the official airport annual traffic figures.[9]

Year Passengers Cargo (tonnes) Movements
1998 174 202 871 9 558
1999 191 502 628 10 333
2000 210 873 2 548 11 858
2001 237 705 1 172 7 430
2002 236 151 1 571 6 594
2003 284 334 1 183 12 384
2004 355 431 823 18 509
2005 454 047 1 378 20 556
2006 857 931 1 510 25 002
2007 1 270 825 1 458 26 948
2008 1 486 442 1 462 32 000
2009 1 365 456 1 031 25 472
2010 1 654 439 946 23 627
2011 1 657 472 957 25 339
2012 1 996 552 928 27 960
2013 1 920 179 910 24 958
2014 2 085 638 5 816 24 970
2015 2 320 000 6 729 24 510

Ground transportation

Bus 106 operated by MPK runs between the airport and the centre of Wrocław (ticket 3 PLN (~0,75 €)). At the airport there are several car rentals. The airport is also connected to the capital Warsaw via the autostrada A8 and expressway S8, the distance is 350 km.

See also

References

  1. ↑ EAD Basic
  2. ↑ http://latamyzwroclawia.pl/historia
  3. ↑ Enter Air Routes
  4. ↑ http://www.lotnisko-chopina.pl/en/news/0/421/szczegoly.html
  5. ↑ Ryanair's website
  6. ↑ http://sprintair.eu/en/booking/
  7. ↑ http://airport.wroclaw.pl/en/2016/09/27/transavia-announced-new-flights-from-wroclaw-to-amsterdam/
  8. ↑ http://www.fly4free.pl/hit-wizz-air-poleci-z-wroclawia-do-kijowa-i-z-gdanska-do-grenoble/
  9. ↑ "Annual statistics", ulc.gov.pl. Link accessed 2012-05-28.

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