Warsaw Modlin
 

Hi,

Was just wondering how is this new airport coming along? is it on-track to make its deadline for its first flights in July?

Does anyone have any pictures?

I just don't want to book a flight with Ryanair if the airport is not finished and the flight is cancelled - such as Berlin Brandenburg :sad:

Cheers

Louis :D

The deadline is already met, look at the pictures:

That's very.......... orange! Do you think they had a particular tennant in mind?

Looks as though Poland might be showing the Germans how to open an airport (Berlin Brandenburg anyone?)......

Not really, WMI was supposed to be open before the Euros if not before.

WMI is a very simple operation - a low cost shed at an old military base.

BER is effectively three airports (TXL, THF & SXF) rolled into one, immense local politics and huge cost long before the opening problems.

It will have two parallel runways with a midfield terminal and a station complex right underneath.

Although I'd love to visit the city of Warsaw, I have no interest in visiting WMI unless I fly with an airline that goes there. I love the city of Berlin, and relish the opportunity to go again through the new BER, once it is finally up and running.

Local Polish press now saying that the Airport has not got clearance for commercial flights at the moment and still waiting for the CAA in Poland to grant such certificate. Appears to be some doubt over the opening of the airport as the latest say they "hope" to get a certificate by Mid July, with flights starting 16th July it's going to be tight to say the least.

Story originally broke on 27th June:
http://modlinlotnisko.********.ie/20...katem-ulc.html

Latest from Friday still states the problem has not been resolved:
Modlin czeka na certyfikat lotniska u

Use translate.google.com to translate.

Whilst the the original plan 3 years ago was to have it ready for the football, it was realised a couple of years ago now that it would be unlikely to be ready as to do so would rush and cut corners. At the time the financing was not in place which could have caused a massive delay.

And they were well aware of the dangers of something coming up during commissioning a la Brandenburg or rushing the commissioning and ending up with a T5 like fiasco.

Hence they decided not to open for the Euros which may seem justified now bearing in mind the current state of their certification process. Therefore it was never declared as an airport to UEFA for EURO 2012 flights during their final evaluation of Polish airport facilities.

Latest news on some of the commissioning and testing of the terminal

Modlin: Dzie

Dzie

Modlin na ostatniej prostej. Zd

Suzeman

The new Modlin airport has just been opened. Initially the first official flight was to be made by Ryanair tomorrow, then Wizz brought forward his first flight, scheduled to arrive from Budapest at 5 PM or so today. Finally, however, the airport's inauguration was carried by Ryanair, after all. This morning Boeing 737-8AS landed there as the extra flight carrying on board Micheal O'Leary himself.

Well, a fierce competition from the very beginning... :cool:Edit: And MOL did get his water-cannon salute greeting :ok: (image source: gazetaprawna.pl)

Some teething problems :}

Modlin Airport has troublesome first day - Warsaw Business Journal - Online Portal - wbj.pl

By all accounts it can't possibly be as bad as the old Etiuda terminal at Okecie/Chopin.

I personally would never fly from a new airport on its first full day of operation unless absolutely essential or I had plenty of time to spare - it's impossible to test a new airport so completely that nothing goes wrong. That being said most people buying tickets will not nevessarily know when an airport is opening.

However if the worst that happened was 12 people missing their flight and being given a transfer to a later flight at the airport's expense then it seems like a very small hiccup for a first day of full scale commercial operations

Starting operations from Modlin also involved a lot of work in unseen corners - such as ATC. Warsaw-Modlin was not on the map until recently (except as a light aircraft airfield) so new SID/STARs etc had to be designed and tested (plus instrument approach procedures). Traffic there increases the worlkoad at Warsaw APP to handle these arrivals and departures on top of the already fairly large traffic at Okecie. A bit similar to Paris-CDG APP handling Ryanair and Wizzair traffic in and out of Beauvais...

Cheers :cool:

Most probably ILS procedures were not too hard to design as there is no ILS in WMI at all (despite the promises/plans). :ugh::D:D
It's the usual Polish airport strategy: built as much/big terminals as you can and don't give a :mad: about how those aircraft will land. Not a single CAT III ILS in a country with a population of 40 million. Actually not even a CAT II ILS other than in WAW.
KRK, GDN, KTW, WRO, POZ, RZE, LCJ etc. are all CAT I. There was not even an approved LVP in KTW/GDN until 2011.

As did this Global Express landed 3 weeks ago. The empty FR 737 was neither the first aircraft nor the first commercial flight in WMI.

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/9...0292776677.jpg

Modlin transport
 

Does anybody know where to find details of surface transport at Modlin, particularly trains? The website looks to be a bit incomplete...

It seems that trains go to/from Warszawa Gdanska, but this is from second hand information.

Dziekuje

You've probably seen this already:

"(current situation)
There is a rail service between Modlin Airport and E-65 railway line connecting Warsaw and Gdańsk which, as provided by the European Agreement on Main International Railway Lines (AGC), is a part of the Paneuropean Transport Corridor No VI connecting the Polish sea border via Działdowo, Modlin, Warsaw with the southern border of Poland.

(future)
The Polish Railway Authority (PKP PLK S.A.) plans to modernize Modlin railway station and Warsaw East (Warszawa Wschodnia) Railway Station - Modlin railway line. There is a siding from Modlin railway station to the airport which, after modernization (widening, improvement of track parameters, connection of electric traction, construction of the station building and related infrastructure) will be used for passenger transport and cargo loading/ unloading. Thus, the airport will acquire a railway connection with Warsaw and, ultimately, Warsaw F. Chopin Airport. "

From Mazowiecki Port Lotniczy Warszawa-Modlin (but dated 2007!)

Edit: found this on TripAdvisor from February this year (which you may also have seen):

"Transport from Modlin airport in Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki will look more or less like this: there will be a shuttle bus between the airport and the Modlin train stop. From there, currently the train takes 45 minutes to get to Warszawa Gdańska station which is an interchange with the metro. Pole Mokotowskie is 5 stations away. However, there are supposed to be trains which won't stop at so many stations as the current trains, so that it will be no more than a 30 minutes train ride. There are also plans to open a new SKM line, from Chopin Airport to Modlin Airport, going through Central/Downtown stations. No details available as yet."

According to this source: jeziorki.blog spot.com/2012/07/modlin-airport-connected-by-rail-but.html (no space in blog spot word, but the entire url is being blocked here apparently) the rail link to/from Modlin rail station is functioning already (+ free bus ride to the airport).

Quote:

"Not a single CAT III ILS in a country with a population of 40 million. Actually not even a CAT II ILS other than in WAW".

While I totally agree that a CAT II ILS at another Polish airport is long overdue (since it would make the choice of weather diversion easier when flying to WAW), I fail to see the relation between having a population of 40 million and having a CAT III procedure. This should be a matter of meteorology, full stop. Even in Poland in winter, there are very few occasions when a CAT III ILS approach would be necessary. The cost of maintaining a CAT III - standard ILS probably exceeds the likely benefit. Plus remember that not all airlines train their crews to CAT III minima (for the few times when it proves necessary), or have aircraft certified to those limits.

Cheers :cool:

:=

Unfortunately there are quite a lot of diversions, however it's not wintertime when it's bad but in spring/autumn.

We could use some CAT III runways with 13 aircraft based in Poland (all a/c and flight deck crew qualified for CAT IIIb)...

Do we know how the battle is going here at the moment? From what I have seen I can't see there being enough demand for the number of flights to some destinations with both carriers.

I was in Modlin last week and even for the four flights a day in London now numbers are not looking that good. The Ryanair flights, one a day seem to be running at very high load factors, and whilst Wizz are carrying more passengers than Ryanair a day because of the three flights the one flight a day that goes out the same time as FR seems to be struggling, looked to be about 50% if that load factor but the morning flight seems to be doing better. But then again when there is three flights a day the load is always going to spread thinner.

I can't see how it's going to be able to support 6-7 flights a day, it just won't be viable as far as I'm concerned. I reckon 5 flights a day at max are going to be tipping point for this route.I guess we will get to find out more when FR add the extra two flights a day who will really win the war on this route so to speak, but without doubt whilst FR's load factor on the London route is very good, it is only one flight a day compared to W6's three.

Oslo and Stockholm I get the impression for both carriers are struggling to some degree, as they always feature in the lowest fares, so here I can't see two operators being able to support the current frequency, they'll either have to reduce or one operator will have to pull out of the route.