Copernicus Airport Wrocław

Copernicus Airport Wrocław (Polish: Port Lotniczy Wrocław im. Mikołaja Kopernika) (IATA: WRO, ICAO: EPWR) is an international commercial airport in Wrocław in Lower Silesian Voivodeship in southwestern Poland. The airport is located 10 km (6.2 mi) southwest of the city centre, at Graniczna street 190. It has one runway, one passenger terminal, one cargo terminal and one general aviation terminal. Wrocław airport is also often used by Polish Air Force and US Air Force.

Copernicus Airport Wrocław

Port Lotniczy Wrocław
im. Mikołaja Kopernika
Summary
Airport typePublic
OwnerWrocław - 49%
Lower Silesian - 31%
PPPL - 20%
OperatorWrocław Airport Company
ServesWrocław, Poland
Focus city for
Elevation AMSL123 m / 404 ft
Coordinates51°06′34″N 016°52′49″E
Websiteairport.wroclaw.pl
Map
EPWR
Location in Poland
EPWR
EPWR (Poland)
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
11/29 2,503 8,212 Concrete/Asphalt
Statistics (2018)
Number of Passengers3,347,223
Aircraft Movements17,2
Source: Polish AIP at EUROCONTROL[1]

History

Early years

The airport was built in 1938 as Flugplatz Breslau-Schöngarten Airport for German military purposes before World War II, when the city was still part of Germany.[2] It was the site of a military aviation school, the Luftkriegsschule Breslau-Schöngarten, later renamed Luftkriegsschule 5. Among the Luftwaffe units stationed here just before the war were the Sturzkampfgeschwader 77, Kampfgeschwader 76, and Kampfgeschwader 1 "Hindenburg".

It was operated briefly by Soviet forces following the war before being used for civilian purposes in 1945.[3] 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.[3]

The first international flights were inaugurated in January 1993, serving Frankfurt, Germany.[4] Significant airport improvements have been completed in the late twentieth century. A new international departures terminal was opened in May 1997 followed by a new domestic terminal in November 1998.[3]

Developments since the 2000s

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.[4] A new air traffic control tower and duty-free area followed in 2001.[3]

On 6 December 2005, the airport was renamed after the famous astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (in Polish: Mikołaj Kopernik),[5] who in Wrocław studied and received a scholarship, and in the years 1503-1538 was a scholaster of the Wrocław Collegiate Holy Cross and St. Bartholomew on the Cathedral Island. 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) and assorted taxiway, apron and navigation equipment improvements (ILS).[4] Also, car parking will be expanded to 1,000 spaces. The first stage, increasing the passenger capacity to 3,5 million yearly, officially opened on 29 February 2012. However, the new terminal opened to passengers on 11 March 2012.

In May 2014, the HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) base for Air Ambulance (pl: Lotnicze Pogotowie Ratunkowe) was launched at the airport.

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 2 C-type aircraft (Boeing 737) was finished in June 2017.[6] The airport has upgraded to ILS system from category I to category II in April 2016.[7]

Until it was reformed (30.06.2010), the 3rd Air Base also used the main runway of the airport, and currently the 8th Transport Aviation Base, whose barracks complex adjoins the airport.

From 14 September 2020, the airport serves a regular cargo connection Wrocław - Cologne Bonn Airport carried out by ATR 72 plane by Swiftair for UPS.

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 airport fire station and air traffic control tower, has a storage area of 3,300 m2 (36,000 sq ft), a bonded warehouse, freezer and radioactive materials warehouse.

US Armed Forces Main Operating Base

Due to the existence of NATO garrisons nearby (Bolesławiec, Świętoszów, Żagań), in which US troops have been stationed as part of the Atlantic Resolve operation since January 2017, Wroclaw airport is very often used by US Air Force transport aircraft (inter alia Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, Lockheed C-130 Hercules, Lockheed C-5 Galaxy). On September 23, 2019, in New York, the presidents of the US and Poland signed a declaration on the deepening of defense cooperation, in which Wrocław Airport was designated as the seat of the US Army air transport base. The District Infrastructure Board from Wrocław in July 2020 announced a tender for the preparation of pre-project documentation regarding the preparation of infrastructure for the Aerial Port of Debarkation (APOD).[8] On September 25, 2020, a contract was signed with the winner of the tender, which has until June 30, 2021 to complete the task.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines serve regular scheduled and charter services to and from Wrocław:

AirlinesDestinations
Air France Hop Paris–Charles de Gaulle
Buzz[9] Seasonal charter: Corfu, Heraklion, Kos, Rhodes, Zakynthos
Bulgarian Air Charter Seasonal charter: Burgas[10]
Corendon Airlines Seasonal: Antalya[11]
Enter Air Seasonal: Heraklion
Charter: Antalya,[12] Hurghada[10]
Seasonal charter: Corfu,[10] Enfidha,[10] Lamezia Terme,[13] Olbia,[13] Palermo,[13] Rhodes,[13] Tirana,[13] Zakynthos,[9] Zanzibar[13]
Eurowings Düsseldorf
KLM Amsterdam[14]
LOT Polish Airlines Budapest (ends 22 March 2021),[15] Warsaw–Chopin
Seasonal: Barcelona,[16] Burgas,[16] Chania,[16] Corfu,[16] Dubrovnik,[16] Heraklion,[16] Kavala,[16] Kos,[16] Palma de Mallorca,[16] Rhodes,[16] Rome–Fiumicino,[16] Santorini,[16] Thessaloniki[16]
Seasonal charter: Bodrum (begins 22 April 2021)[10]
Lufthansa Frankfurt, Munich
Onur Air Charter: Antalya[10]
Ryanair Alicante, Beauvais, Bergamo, Bologna, Bristol, Cork, Dublin, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Gdańsk, Glasgow, Kiev–Boryspil, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, London–Stansted, Malta, Manchester, Naples, Newcastle upon Tyne, Odessa, Palermo, Rome–Ciampino, Sandefjord, Shannon
Seasonal: Chania, Corfu, Girona, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Podgorica, Tenerife–South, Zadar
Scandinavian Airlines Copenhagen
Smartwings Seasonal charter: Bodrum,[12] Rhodes,[13] Thessaloniki[9]
SunExpress Seasonal: İzmir[17]
Swiss International Air Lines Zürich
Wizz Air Bari, Birmingham, Doncaster/Sheffield, Dortmund, Eindhoven, Kharkiv, Kiev–Zhuliany, Kutaisi, Larnaca,[18] London–Luton, Lviv, Odessa, Reykjavík–Keflavík, Sandefjord, Stockholm–Skavsta, Zaporizhzhia
Seasonal: Burgas (begins 19 June 2021)[19]

Statistics
Interior of Main Terminal
General Aviation Terminal

Following are the official airport annual traffic figures.[20]

Year Passengers Cargo (tonnes)[21] Movements Comments
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 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull
2011 1 657 472 957 25 339
2012 1 996 552 928 27 960
2013 1 920 179 910 24 958
2014 2 085 638 463 24 970
2015 2 320 000 391 24 510
2016 2 419 561 2 549 25 486
2017 2 855 071 1 025 27 737
2018 3 347 553 10 425 32 462
2019 3 548 089 11 061 32 967
2020 1 007 323 8 809 15 512 COVID-19 pandemic

Ground transportation

Bus and coach

The airport is served by two MPK Wrocław bus lines, which on their routes have many stops in the city. Line 106 (day[22]) or 206 (night) connect to main railway station and main bus station, and line 129[23] through the estates Strachowice, Żerniki, Kuźniki, Gądów Mały, Popowice, Różanka, Karłowice, Poświętne with the northern part of the Psie Pole district. The journey takes approximately 40 minutes.[24][25][26]

From December 2017 Polbus-PKS started an express bus called WRO Airport Express connecting the airport with Dominikański Square (near the Market Square) and the main bus station, which is located in the basement of the Wroclavia shopping mall (stand number 7).

Flixbus on the route Szczecin-Zakopane also stops in the airport.[27]

Car

The airport also is served by traditional taxi corporations, as well as Uber, Bolt, iTaxi and Free Now. The airport offers nearly 4000 parking spaces.[28] There are car rentals at the airport.[29]

Bike

There is also a bike path that leads to the airport.[30][31]

Railway

There are future plans to build a railway line between the airport and Wrocław Główny railway station. A tunnel and a railway station have already been built under the main terminal.

See also

References
  1. "EAD Basic - Error Page". www.ead.eurocontrol.int.
  2. "latamy z WROclawia » Maintenance Mode". latamyzwroclawia.pl.
  3. "History | Port Lotniczy Wrocław". airport.wroclaw.pl. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  4. "Copernicus Airport, Wrocław". Airport Technology. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  5. "Polot - Lotnisko we Wrocławiu Strachowice 2011r". www.polot.net (in Polish). 2011-02-10. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  6. "Ryanair zakłada własną klasę w szkole we Wrocławiu. Absolwent może zarabiać nawet do 25 tys. PLN miesięcznie". Fly4free.pl - tanie loty i sposoby na tanie bilety lotnicze (in Polish). Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  7. Ryś, Aleksandra (2016-05-18). "Wrocław najbezpieczniejszym lotniskiem w Polsce. System ILS CAT II już działa!". www.tanie-loty.com.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  8. Jak będzie wyglądała polsko-amerykańska baza we Wrocławiu?
  9. "Timetable". grecos.pl.
  10. "Coral Travel". coraltravel.pl.
  11. "Corendon Airlines S20 Network expansion". Routesonline. Retrieved Mar 7, 2020.
  12. "Timetable". TUI.pl.
  13. "air and charter tickets". itaka.pl.
  14. "Cultural city Wrocław new destination KLM". News.klm.com. 2019-05-06. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  15. "LOT will take off from Wroclaw to Budapest". aviation24.be. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  16. Liu, Jim (29 June 2020). "LOT Polish Airlines outlines Summer 2020 LOTnaWakacje Holiday program". routesonline.com.
  17. "Book cheap flights online to Turkey, Egypt, Bulgaria, Scandinavia and Canary Islands". sunexpress.com. Retrieved 2019-05-10.
  18. Liu, Jim. "Wizz Air S20 new routes addition as of 09JUN20". Routesonline. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  19. https://wizzair.com/#/
  20. "Annual statistics", ulc.gov.pl. Link accessed 2012-05-28.
  21. "Cargo - Port Lotniczy Wrocław". airport.wroclaw.pl.
  22. "Port Lotniczy, bus 106 on Google Maps". Port Lotniczy. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  23. "Port Lotniczy, bus 129 on Google Maps". Port Lotniczy. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  24. www.cmsmirage.pl, CMSMirage sp z o o-. "Autobus 206 we Wrocławiu - sprawdź rozkład jazdy". www.wroclaw.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  25. www.cmsmirage.pl, CMSMirage sp z o o-. "Autobus 106 we Wrocławiu - sprawdź rozkład jazdy". www.wroclaw.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  26. www.cmsmirage.pl, CMSMirage sp z o o-. "Autobus 129 we Wrocławiu - sprawdź rozkład jazdy". www.wroclaw.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  27. "By bus | Port Lotniczy Wrocław". airport.wroclaw.pl. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  28. "Nowy parking przy lotnisku już działa". www.wroclaw.pl (in Polish). 2018-04-09. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  29. "Car rental | Port Lotniczy Wrocław". airport.wroclaw.pl. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  30. "Rowerowy Wrocław - czyli najpopularniejsze ścieżki oraz trasy rowerowe". Oliwia Papatanasis | The Ollie (in Polish). 2018-04-12. Retrieved 2019-02-01.
  31. "System Informacji Przestrzennej Wrocławia". gis.um.wroc.pl/imap. Retrieved 2019-02-01.

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