Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport

Airport maintenance facilities seen from the runway

Departure hall of Terminal 1

Sculptured head of Frédéric Chopin installed on a monument base in front of Terminal 1. Zofia Wolska (2001)

Terminal 2 façade

Baggage claim area, Terminal 2

Etiuda Terminal façade

Cargo Terminal

Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport (Polish: Port Lotniczy im. Fryderyka Chopina) (IATA: WAW, ICAO: EPWA) is an international airport located in the Okęcie district of Warsaw, Poland. Formerly Okęcie International Airport, it is named after the famous Polish composer and former Warsaw resident, Frédéric Chopin. It is Poland's busiest airport, handling more than 50% of the country's air passenger traffic.

The former name, lotnisko Okęcie (Okęcie airport), remains in common use, including air traffic and aerodrome references.

Warsaw Airport handles approximately 100 scheduled flights daily and an ever rising number of charters. London, Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam are the busiest international connections, while Kraków, Wrocław and Gdańsk are the most popular domestic ones.

History

The land was used for aviation since 1910, while in 1927 it was decided that Okęcie would become the city's primary airport. After the completion of technical buildings and the passenger terminal in 1934, the airport took over the handling of all traffic from the Pole Mokotowskie airfield. Apart from LOT Polish Airlines, Okęcie was also home to four squadrons of the Polish Air Force and to aircraft manufacturer Doświadczalne Zakłady Lotnicze. Today, the military continues to use the airport, mostly in support of government VIP flights.

During World War II the airport infrastructure was almost completely destroyed. In 1969 a new international terminal was opened; domestic flights continued to operate from the facilities built on the site of the pre-war terminal. The current two-story Terminal 1 was constructed in 1992 to replace the separate domestic and international terminals. The latter has since been mostly torn down with the arrivals hall being adapted in 2004 to become the Etiuda Terminal for low-cost carriers. The newest addition, Terminal 2, is expected to become fully operational in November 2007. Currently it handles all the incoming flights.

Statistics

Statistics of passenger traffic 1995-2006 posted on the airport's official webpage:[3]

• 1995-2,735,469
• 1996-3,090,321
• 1997-3,484,452
• 1998-3,815,624
• 1999-3,997,531
• 2000-4,325,814
• 2001-4,713,655
• 2002-4,936,835
• 2003-5,166,991
• 2004-6,085,111
• 2005-7,071,881
• 2006-8,101,827

Terminal 2 construction and mixed terminal use

The construction phase of a Terminal 2, which will triple the airport's capacity, is nearly finished. The airport was until recently negotiating permission from the fire inspector to fully open Terminal 2 for use. Its Arrivals Hall was opened on December 1 2006. Its North Concourse (first of three) and the shared Departures Hall were expected to open at the end of November 2007 (original date for the entire project, complete with 3 pirses: 2005).^[2] However, on 12 October 2007, after yet another failed fire inspection, the airport operator, PPL, cancelled the contract outright with the builder, Budimex-Ferrovial-Lamela, and the workers left the premises with the building left in an unfinished state, while the matter is expected to end up in court. Since the builder is also the architect, it became unclear, who and when will finish up the construction (the North concourse, and the other two: the Central and South concourses) and make the vacant completed Departures Hall comply with the current fire code.^[3]

Currently, departing passengers check in at Terminal 1, which is likely to be redeployed as a low-cost or domestic terminal in the future, upon the completion of Terminal 2. Currently, all arriving flights use Terminal 2 (including the airlines using Etiuda Terminal for departures).

Future second airport

This article or section contains information about a planned or expected new airport. It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the airport approaches, and as more information becomes available on it.

Warsaw may see its second passenger airport in 2009. A former military airfield is awaiting transformation into a low-cost scheduled and charter flights airport (with cargo capabilities to be added later) in order to off-load Frederic Chopin Airport. The new airport is located 40 km north of Warsaw centre, in Modlin, and the first aircraft operation is expected in the winter of 2009 at the earliest. This airport has been talked about for many years, with its projected completion date slipping repeatedly. Modlin airport will serve 2-3 million passengers annually.

Airlines and destinations

Terminals 1 & 2

• Adria Airways (Ljubljana)
• Aer Lingus (Cork, Dublin)
• Aeroflot (Moscow-Sheremetyevo)
• Aerosvit Airlines (Kiev-Boryspil)
• Air China (Beijing) [starts October 2008] [4]
• Air Europa (Madrid)
• Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
• Alitalia (Milan-Malpensa)
  • operated by Alitalia Express (Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino)
• Austrian Airlines
  • operated by Austrian Arrows (Vienna)
• Belavia (Minsk)
• Blue1 (Helsinki)
• British Airways (London-Heathrow, London-Gatwick [starts 30 March 2008])
• Brussels Airlines (Brussels)
• Clickair (Barcelona)
• Czech Airlines (Prague)
• El Al (Tel Aviv)
• Eurocypria Airlines (Larnaca)
• Finnair (Helsinki)
• Iberia (Madrid) [starts 28 October 2007]
• KLM (Amsterdam)
  • KLM operated by KLM Cityhopper (Amsterdam)
• LOT Polish Airlines (Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Beijing [starts 30 March 2008], Beirut (seasonal), Brussels, Bucharest-Otopeni, Budapest, Chicago-O'Hare, Copenhagen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Hamburg, Hanover [starts 28 October 2007], Helsinki, Istanbul-Atatürk, Kiev-Boryspil, Larnaca, Ljubljana, London-Heathrow, Lyon, Madrid, Manchester, Milan-Malpensa, Minsk, Moscow-Sheremetyevo, Munich, New York-JFK, Newark, Nice, Odessa, Oslo, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Prague, Riga, Rome-Fiumicino, Sofia, St. Petersburg, Stockholm-Arlanda, Stuttgart, Tallinn, Tel Aviv, Toronto-Pearson, Venice, Vienna, Zürich)
  • operated by Eurolot (Berlin-Tegel, Kaliningrad, Lviv, Prague, Vilnius)
• Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
  • Lufthansa Regional operated by Lufthansa CityLine (Düsseldorf, Munich)
  • Lufthansa Regional operated by Eurowings (Düsseldorf)
• Malév Hungarian Airlines (Budapest)
• SAS Scandinavian Airlines (Copenhagen)
• Swiss International Air Lines (Basel/Mulhouse, Zürich)
• TACV (Sal) [Starts November 2,2007]
• Turkish Airlines (Istanbul-Atatürk)

Domestic Terminal

The domestic terminal is located within Terminal 1.

• LOT Polish Airlines (Gdańsk, Katowice, Kraków, Rzeszów, Wrocław [starts 12 February 2008])
  • operated by Eurolot (Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Katowice, Kraków, Poznań, Rzeszów, Szczecin, Wrocław, Zielona Góra [starts 7 November 2007])
  • operated by Jet Air (Bydgoszcz, Łódź, Katowice, Kraków, Zielona Góra) [all end 7 November 2007]

Etiuda Terminal

Low cost carriers (recently including some Centralwings flights) use the Etiuda terminal. It is smaller and its facilities are rudimentary, and accordingly, its airport taxes are lower. Flights using Etiuda terminal depart from there and arrive at terminal 2.

• Air Italy (Verona)
• bmi
  • bmibaby (Cardiff [starts 10 February 2008], East Midlands [starts 10 February 2008])
• Centralwings (Bologna, Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh, Grenoble [starts 1 December 2007], Lille, Lisbon, London-Gatwick, London-Stansted, Manchester [starts 28 October 2007] Rome-Ciampino,Shannon ) Centralwings also still uses Terminal 1 for some flights
• easyJet (Bristol, London-Luton)
• Germanwings (Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart)
• Norwegian Air Shuttle (Alicante, Athens, Bergen, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Malaga, Munich [starts 28 October 2007], Oslo-Gardermoen, Paris-Orly [starts 29 October 2007], Rygge [starts 14 March 2008], Rome-Fiumicino, Salzburg [starts 29 December 2007], Stavanger [starts 31 October 2007], Stockholm-Arlanda)
• Ryanair (Dublin)
• Sky Europe (Paris-Orly, Vienna [starts 28 October 2007])
• Wizz Air (Belfast-International, Brussels/Charleroi, Budapest, Dortmund, Durham-Tees Valley, Frankfurt-Hahn, Glasgow-Prestwick, Gothenburg-City, Grenoble-Isère [starts 1 December 2007], Liverpool, London-Luton, Malmö, Milan/Bergamo-Orio al Serio [starts 8 December 2007], Oslo/Sandefjord-Torp, Paris/Beauvais-Tillé, Stockholm-Skavsta)

Cargo Airlines

• Apatas
• DHL
• FedEx
• Rivne Universal Avia
• TNT Airways
• UPS
• White Eagle Aviation

Runways

Satellite picture

The airport has two intersecting runways, RWY 11/29 2800 x 50 meters and RWY 15/33 3690 x 60 meters. Their configuration and available taxiways permit 34 passenger operations (takeoffs or landings) per hour.

Preferential runways

The following preferential runway system has been established for the airport:

Arrivals:

1. . Rwy 33,
2. . RWY 11,
3. . RWY 15,
4. . RWY 29.

Departures:

1. . RWY 29,
2. . RWY 15,
3. . RWY 33,
4. . RWY 11.

Between 20:00 and 04:00 hours (in winter: 21:00 and 05:00), RWY 15/33 is used, weather and technical considerations permitting.

Accidents and Incidents

• On December 19 1962 a LOT Polish Airlines Vickers Viscount 804 crashed on 2nd approach before the runway 33 threshold while performing an instrument landing at night in fog in winter. All aboard died - 33 people.

• On March 14 1980 and May 9 1987 two LOT Polish Airlines Ilyushin Il-62 aircraft crashed on approach (the latter returning to the airport) due to catastrophic contagious engine failure caused by engine design and manufacturing faults. All people on board died, 87 and 183, respectively.

• On September 14 1993 Lufthansa Flight 2904,an Airbus 320-200 overran the runway and crashed into an embankment after landing on a flight from Frankfurt in heavy rain, due to pilot error and other factors. Copilot and a passenger died, while the remaining 68 passengers and crew were injured.

• On May 4 2007 Wizz Air Flight 441 on its approach to Warsaw Okęcie Airport was reported by the airport manager as having flames shooting out of its engine number 2. Passengers and crew were evacuated from the aircraft with no casualties. After undergoing inspection, the aircraft was allowed to depart on its next scheduled flight.

See also

• List of airports in Poland

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Okęcie Airport

• Official website of the Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport (English) (Polish)
• World Aero Data airport information for EPWA
• Maps and aerial photos for 52°′″N 20°′″E / 52.165833, 20.967222Coordinates: 52°′″N 20°′″E / 52.165833, 20.967222
  • Satellite image from WikiMapia or Google Maps
  • Street map from Multimap or GlobalGuide
  • Aerial image from TerraServer

Airports of Poland

Bydgoszcz Ignacy Jan Paderewski Airport (BZG) • Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN) • Katowice International Airport (KTW) • John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice (KRK) • Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport (LCJ) • Poznań-Ławica Airport (POZ) • Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport (RZE) • Szczecin-Goleniów "Solidarność" Airport (SZZ) • Szczytno-Szymany International Airport (SZY) • Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport (WAW) • Copernicus Airport Wrocław (WRO) • Zielona Góra Airport (IEG)

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