Katowice International Airport
S1 (airport - junction Podwarpie )
I1 i3
I7 i10 i12
The Katowice International Airport ( IATA code KTW, ICAO code EPKT, poln Międzynarodowy Port Lotniczy Katowice ) is located near the village of Pyrzowice (Town Ożarowice, Tarnów County Góra, Poland), about 34 kilometers north of Katowice and the after passengers third largest airport in the country.
The airport opens, especially the towns of the Upper Silesian industrial district and other districts of the region of Silesia, which are the most densely populated areas of the country.
History
In 1940, the German Luftwaffe began to create a military airfield. He was named as " Udetfeld " (after the German General Ernst Udet ). There were three start and created runways with a length of 1000 to 1500 meters in a triangle.
In the years 1945 to 1951, the airport was under the Soviet Army. 1951 took over the Polish Air Force from the airport.
In 1966, a first civilian flight to Warsaw was taken because the regular services in the city nearby airfield Katowice- Muchowiec was set in the same year. By 1969, a small civilian infrastructure was built. This low air traffic lasted until October 1990 and was discontinued in the wake of the political upheavals in Poland.
To promote air traffic in the region, was founded in the first quarter of 1991, the GTL ( Górnośląskie Towarzystwo Lotnicze SA). On 27 March 1993, LOT took the flights to Warsaw again and as the first foreign airline to the German Lufthansa took their flight to Frankfurt. On 1 May 1994, the management of the airport was passed into the hands of GTL. Until then, the military still had the say. Then the continuous expansion of the airport, terminal, cargo halls, parking positions, taxiways and the runway extension began.
In 2004, the Hungarian Wizz Air from the Katowice airport began to operate. In the same year, the expansion of Terminal A has been completed. The capacity increased to 1.7 million passengers. The accession of Poland to the EU and by the budget airlines, passenger numbers soared. This made a further expansion necessary. In November 2006, the expressway was completed in S1 and in July 2007 the Terminal B.
2008 of Terminal B, three new Abstellpostionen and a new ILS system for landings by category 1 were put into operation west.
In October 2010, work began on upgrading Built in the 1940s, aircraft hangars, which were completed in April 2011. 2012 was a new aircraft hangar, east of the taken -old in operation. The investment Summer amounts to 86 million zloty. In August 2011, the construction of the construction of 13 new aircraft parking of that will last for two years and 56 million zloty costs began. It is the beginning of investment of 560 million zloty and also includes the construction of a 3.8 km long airstrip. In October 2011, the land-based modernization and expansion work at Terminal A began to also include the construction of a new roof. Overall, the terminal will be expanded by 1,000 m². The work was completed in early June 2012.
Beginning of March 2013, work began on a new 3200 m long start and runway. It is built about 200 meters north of the current track. The cost of the new runway should be at 223 million zlotys.
Airlines and destinations
The airport is served, among others, by the Airlines LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, EuroLOT, Wizz Air, Ryanair, Enter Air, Small Planet Airlines and Bingo Airways.
From German-speaking countries of the airport is served nonstop: Lufthansa flies daily to Frankfurt and Dusseldorf, LOT to Munich. Wizz Air flies twice daily to Dortmund and several times a week to Cologne and Frankfurt-Hahn.
There are also, among others, direct flights to Athens, Bristol, Barcelona, Budapest, Liverpool, London - Luton, Milan, Paris - Beauvais, Rome -Ciampino, Stockholm, Thessaloniki and Warsaw.
On 8 November 2009, a weekly cargo flight line to Hamilton, Canada, was taken by the Canadian CargoJet Airways.
Terminals
On 9 July 2007, the newly built Terminal B was opened. Together with Terminal A are now 35 check-in counters available. The capacity increased to 3.5 million passengers. Since 30 March 2008, all non -Schengen flights from Terminal A and all Schengen flights from Terminal B will take place. The terminal A has been extended in 2012 to 1000 square meters.
Transport links
Since June 2012, the airport with the A1 motorway is connected, which leads from the Czech border to the motorway junction Pyrzowice and adjoins the beginning there expressway S1. At the airport the province road 913, which connects the airport with the National Road 78 Tarnów Gory - Siewierz begins.
The airport is connected by several bus lines with the surrounding area. So buses for example to Breslau ( Wrocław), Bytom, Częstochowa, Katowice, Krakow, Zakopane and Siewierz.
Expansion plans
In a study presented in January 2011, the planned development of the airport is to see to the year 2032. In this, a web connection is available. The expansion of the connection should be established in two steps, in the first section, a new line is expected to be built between Pyrzowice - Bytom; in the second phase, the distance between Katowice and Bytom is to be renewed. As the breakpoint Katowice, Chorzów Batory, Chorzów, Bytom - Rozbark, Piekary Śląskie and Pyrzowice are given. The costs are expected to amount to 252 million zloty. It is still spoken by a further variant, the path should be routed via Tarnów Gory. However, this would lead to a traveling time extension. A completion date is no longer called.
The study also another terminal can be seen, which is to the east of Terminal A arise where there are currently some Bert actuator building. In addition, new parking garages and farm buildings are planned. It is also evident that today's platforms 1 and 2 are connected by an extension. In total there are 15 positions with a total area of 110,000 m² arise. A corresponding construction contract was signed on 21 April 2011. This also includes a rebuild and rehabilitate taxiways. The extensions to CAT II are performed improperly.
Incidents
- On August 11, 1981 An-24 was hijacked. The hijackers wanted to be flown to West Germany, however, until the machine stormed and the hijacker was arrested.
- On 27 October 2007 damaged a too low approaching B737- 800 of the Spanish airline Air Europa, which flew under the UN Charter, the approach lights. There were no injured passengers or crew members. The landing approach lighting system was seriously damaged and was out of service for several weeks.