Other notice about Ryanair. This is about a new base in Poland.
Gazeta.pl Warsaw Business Jornal - 30/10/2006
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No time to dawdle
But officials in Poland say that there is no time left to wait. "We don't have time to build a new, large airport for Warsaw. We have to open the two airports to relieve Chopin Airport so it can function normally," Kalita says. Zasada claims that realistically it will take 15 to 20 years to build a new airport in a greenfield location in Poland. "That's a whole era. So for the next 20 years we are going to use the already overcrowded Chopin Airport?" he asks.
Kalita points to Ryanair's recent declaration that they could fly six million passengers to Warsaw annually. "Others also want to fly here. We can't base our assumptions on Chopin Airport's data. You don't know how many passengers would fly to Warsaw if we had more capacity," he says.
"I think Modlin and Sochaczew should be opened because that is what Poland's air traffic needs," Kalita concludes.
Low cost, big influence
Zasada points to another factor that LCCs frequently complain about - Okęcie's high fees. "The low-cost airlines, which will dominate the market for the next five years, will just force us to open a new airport. If not, we might find ourselves in a situation where airlines start playing a more active role in this field," he claims. There are already rumors that Ryanair is considering locating its new technical base in Jasionka near Rzeszów in southeastern Poland. Experts claim that this could be used as a bargaining chip to force authorities to open Modlin airport.
Sochaczew Airport's president points out that there are cities with more than one budget airport. "London has three low-cost airports and they are working fine. Warsaw can be a miniature version of that model," Zasada said.
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