Warsaw Chopin Airport

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Warsaw Chopin Airport
Warsaw Airport Logo.svg
Warsawairportaerial.jpg
Characteristics
ICAO code EPWA
IATA code WAW
Coordinates

52 ° 9 '57 "  N , 20 ° 58' 2"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 9 '57 "  N , 20 ° 58' 2"  E
Height above MSL 110 m (361  ft )
Transport links
Distance from the city center 7 km southwest of Warsaw
Street S2 S79 D2
Local transport S-Bahn and regional train
Three public bus routes
Basic data
opening 1934
operator Polish Airports State Enterprise
surface around 500 ha
Terminals 2
Passengers 18,860,000 (2019)
Air freight 23,173 t (2017)
Flight
movements 		157,044 (2017)
Runways
11/29 2800 m × 50 m concrete
15/33 3690 m × 60 m concrete

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The Warsaw Chopin Airport ( IATA : WAW , ICAO : EPWA ; Polish Lotnisko Chopina w Warszawie ) is the international airport of the Polish capital Warsaw . The airport operated by Polish Airports State Enterprise is the largest and most important in the country and serves as a hub and home base for the national airline LOT . The airport was named after the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin in 2001 . Before that, since it opened in 1934, it was called Warsaw-Okęcie Airport .

One area is used by the Air Force of the Republic of Poland .

Location and transport links

The airport is located about 7 km southwest of downtown Warsaw in the Okęcie settlement .

Various public bus lines run from the airport. There are also express buses to over 30 Polish cities.

A short branch line of the Warsaw – Kraków railway line , which connects the airport directly with Warsaw city center, opened on June 1, 2012. The drive from the airport to the city center takes 25 minutes.

history

Inside view of Terminal A
Inside view of Terminal A

The first airport in Warsaw was Mokotów Airport , located in the suburb of Mokotów . Due to the lack of expansion options there, the decision was made to move to the current location. The new facility was opened in 1933 and served as a military airfield for the Polish Air Force until the Second World War . In the immediate vicinity were the factories of the aircraft manufacturer Doświadczalne Zakłady Lotnicze . The airport was almost completely destroyed in World War II. After the end of the war, it was rebuilt.

In 1969 an international terminal was added and the airport opened for international air traffic on April 27 of that year. The two-story Terminal 1 of the airport was built in 1992; Terminal 2 went into operation on March 18, 2008. Between 2003 and March 2009, the so-called Etiuda Terminal served as a handling building for low-cost airlines . Frédéric Chopin Airport also has a freight terminal.

In 2010 around 8.6 million passengers were handled here, with the number of passengers increasing very steadily from 2003 (5.1 million) to 2007 by around 1 million a year. 34 flight movements can be processed per hour.

Since the airport's capacity limit had long since passed, was for low cost airlines to the previously used by the military Warsaw Modlin Airport expanded and opened on 17 June 2012, after which Wizz Air moved its base there, Ryanair followed.

Due to damage to the runway at Warsaw-Modlin Airport, Wizz Air and Ryanair temporarily resumed operations from Frédéric Chopin Airport on December 22, 2012. Ryanair returned to Warsaw-Modlin on September 30, 2013, while Wizz Air stayed at Frédéric Chopin Airport. In June 2018 it became known that the government was planning a major airport to replace or relieve Chopin Airport, Warsaw's central airport .

Terminal building

Until 2010, the airport formally had two Terminals 1 and 2, which opened in 1992 and 2008, respectively. Since then, however, the entire complex has been referred to as Terminal A and divided into the areas AB (previously Terminal 1) and CE (previously Terminal 2). The larger CE area is currently used by LOT and the Star Alliance partners. This is also where all flights to Israel are handled. All other airlines have moved to the AB area, which was renovated in 2015 .

Passenger volume

year Passengers
1934 0.011 million
1935 0.014 million
1936 0.022 million
1937 0.019 million
1938 0.015 million
year Passengers
1946 0.056 million
1947 0.049 million
1948 0.044 million
... ...
1954 0.107 million
1955 0.133 million
1956 0.171 million
1957 0.225 million
1958 0.144 million
1959 0.184 million
1960 0.213 million
year Passengers
1961 0.238 million
1962 0.282 million
1963 0.283 million
1964 0.343 million
1965 0.434 million
1966 0.562 million
1967 0.728 million
1968 0.788 million
1969 0.852 million
1970 0.981 million
1971 1.125 million
1972 1.371 million
1973 1.655 million
1974 1.435 million
1975 1.756 million
1976 1.896 million
1977 2.092 million
1978 2.144 million
year Passengers
1995 2.7 million
1996 3.1 million
1997 3.5 million
1998 3.8 million
1999 4.0 million
2000 4.3 million
2001 4.7 million
2002 4.9 million
2003 5.2 million
2004 6.1 million
2005 7.1 million
2006 8.4 million
2007 9.3 million
2008 9.4 million
2009 8.3 million
2010 8.7 million
2011 9.3 million
2012 9.6 million
2014 10.01 million
2015 11.19 million
2016 12.80 million
2017 15.73 million

Military use

The airport also serves as a "government airport". The air forces refer to the military part as 1. Baza Lotnictwa Transportowego (1. BLTr., 1. Transport Air Base). In addition to the VIP planes, some helicopters are also stationed here.

Incidents

  • On November 11, 1937, a Lockheed L-10A of the LOT (SP-AYD) crashed in Myszadło near Piaseczno while approaching Warsaw Airport without seeing the earth using the ZZ procedure . The cause was a communication error with inadvertent transmission of the landing order, which concerned another aircraft on approach. Four passengers died, the crew of two and six other passengers survived.
  • On July 18, 1952, an Ilyushin Il-12B of the LOT (SP-LHC) was irreparably damaged on landing. None of the inmates were harmed.
  • On April 12, 1958, a Convair CV-240 of the Polish Polskie Line Lotnicze LOT (SP-LPB) lost a propeller during a training flight. As a result, it crashed at Warsaw-Okęcie Airport. None of the four-man crew was harmed, but the machine could no longer be repaired.
  • On December 19, 1962, a Vickers Viscount of the LOT crashed on a commercial flight from Brussels via Berlin during a failed go-around almost 1.5 km from the runway threshold. All 33 occupants were killed (see main article LOT flight 248 ).
  • On March 14, 1980, an Ilyushin Il-62 of the LOT had an accident while approaching the airport. All 87 people on board were killed in the accident. See main article LOT flight LO 007
  • On May 9, 1987, two engines failed on a flight of an Ilyushin Il-62 M of the Polskie line Lotnicze LOT (SP-LBG) from Warsaw to New York. A fire broke out in the stern of the machine, but the crew did not initially detect it. The pilots then decided to return to Warsaw Airport. However, the machine crashed shortly before the runway. In the most serious accident of the LOT and the IL-62 to date, all 183 passengers and the crew were killed (see also LOT flight 5055 ) .

Web links

Commons : Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Warsaw Airport  - Travel Guide

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Statystyki wg portów lotniczych. ULC.GOV.pl, accessed July 15, 2020 (Polish).
  2. ↑ Statistics - freight on board. ULC.GOV.pl, accessed on April 17, 2018 .
  3. ↑ http://www.mmwarszawa.pl/364246/2011/3/22/lat-lotniska-chopina-ale-nazwa-okecie-wciaz-popularniejsza?category=news
  4. ↑ http://www.newsweek.pl/artykuly/sekcje/spoleczenstwo/chopin-zamiast-okecia,61552,1
  5. ↑ http://www.lotnisko-chopina.pl/en/public-transport.html
  6. ↑ http://www.airportdesk.de/airports/europa/polen/flughafen-warschau-frederic-chopin.html
  7. ^ Heinz A. F. Schmidt: Aviation data from March 1, 1969 to February 28, 1970 . In: Flieger-Jahrbuch 1971 . Transpress, Berlin 1970, p. 164 .
  8. ↑ http://old.lotnisko-chopina.pl/en/airport/about-the-airport/pressroom/news/2012/12/chopin-airport-takes-flights-from-modlin
  9. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / en.modlinairport.pl
  10. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wizzair.com
  11. ^ Mieczyslaw Mikulski, Andrzej Glass: Polski transport lotniczy 1918-1978 . Warsaw 1980, p. 92 .
  12. ↑ a b Mieczyslaw Mikulski, Andrzej Glass: Polski transport lotniczy 1918-1978 . Warsaw 1980, p. 201 .
  13. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Pasażerowie. Retrieved August 3, 2013 .
  14. ↑ Szczegóły strasznej katastrofy lotniczej pod Warszawą . In: Goniec Częstochowski . November 14, 1937, p. 3–4 ( czest.pl [PDF]).
  15. ^ Accident report CV-240 SP-LPB , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on October 19, 2019.
  16. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  17. ^ Accident report IL-62M SP-LBG , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 24, 2020.
  18. ↑ Belly landing in Warsaw , Spiegel Online , November 1, 2011, accessed on November 1, 2011