Lublin Airport (''Port Lotniczy Lublin'') is an airport in Poland serving

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

and the surrounding region. The site is located about 10 km (6.2 miles) east of central Lublin, adjacent to the town of

Świdnik Świdnik () is a town in southeastern Poland with 40,186 inhabitants (2012), situated in the Lublin Voivodeship, southeast of the city of Lublin. It is the capital of Świdnik County. Świdnik belongs to the historic province of Lesser Poland, ...

. The airport has a 2520 × (45 + 2 × 7.5) m runway (), and the terminal facilities are capable of handling four

Boeing 737-800 The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, or 737 Next Gen, is a narrow-body aircraft powered by two jet engines and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Launched in 1993 as the third generation derivative of the Boein ...

class aircraft simultaneously. Construction began in the fall of 2010 and the official opening took place on December 17, 2012. The new airport replaced the grass airstrip (), which had served the

PZL-Świdnik PZL-Świdnik S.A. (''Wytwórnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego PZL-Świdnik S.A.'') is the biggest helicopter manufacturer in Poland. Its main products are PZL W-3 Sokół and PZL SW-4 Puszczyk helicopters. In early 2010 the factory was acquired by ...

helicopter factory, and was known as ''Świdnik Airport'' with the ICAO identifier ''EPSW''.

History

Early years

The construction of the Świdnik airfield began in 1935 and it was officially opened on 4 June 1939. It was to serve as a training centre with a pilot school, and was built by the

Airborne and Antigas Defence League Air and Chemical Defense League (Polish: ''Liga Obrony Powietrznej i Przeciwgazowej'', ''L.O.P.P.'') was a mass Poland, Polish paramilitary organization, founded in 1928 as a result of the merger of the ''State Air Defense League'' (Polish: ''Lig ...

, a mass organisation propagating aviation among the general public. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, it was used by the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

after Poland was occupied in September 1939, and then by the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

once Lublin was captured by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

in July 1944. The Germans destroyed the airfield's buildings before withdrawing.

After World War II

The airport opened for passenger traffic on 30 November 1945. A domestic service was opened with flight number 1/2 that flew the route Warsaw – Łódź – Kraków – Rzeszów – Lublin – Warsaw. Unfortunately, there is very little written material from the time that mentions this route, so proper sources are required. . The route was later discontinued and Lublin lost all domestic services. In 1949, the Polish government made a decision to build an aviation factory in Świdnik, located next to the airfield. It assembled its first helicopters in 1956, with full-scale production beginning in 1957. The factory employed some staff from the pre-war Lubelska Wytwórnia Samolotów, an airplane manufacturer in Lublin that functioned from 1936 to 1939, being itself the successor of Plage i Laśkiewicz factory which functioned between 1920 and 1935. That factory had its own airfield within the Lublin city limits, but it was closed and built over after the war. One of the streets running through the area where the airfield used to be is named Lotnicza (''Aviation Street'').

Current facilities

The need for an air terminus in Lublin, the 9th biggest city in Poland, has been felt for the better half of 20th century. In 2008, the project received

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

84.1 million financing backing from the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. Subsequently, the airport design competition was won by a Polish-Spanish consortium of SENER Ingeniería y Sistemas (engineering & master plan) and

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

-based architectural firm ARÉ (architecture). The architectural design was well received by the design community; however the fit and finish of the completed terminal building fell short of the winning proposal. The contract to build the runway was signed in August, 2011, with completion in late 2012. Operations commenced on December 17, 2012 with a Category I instrument landing system, which was later upgraded to a Category II system for low visibility operations. A Reuters special report in December 2014 highlighted Lublin Airport (along with

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...

and

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian Vo ...

airports) as a target of inefficient EU subsidies with disappointing passenger numbers. In July 2016,

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...

announced the termination of its route from

Frankfurt Airport Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...

to Lublin due to low demand by 29 October 2016 after only two years of service.pasazer.com - Lufthansa kasuje loty z Lublina
(Polish) 10 July 2016 In September 2015 WizzAir opened its base at Lublin Airport with one Airbus A320 Aircraft. In November 2017, the company announced that they will close its base in Lublin that resulted in terminating services to Doncaster Sheffield, Liverpool and Tel-Aviv in June 2018, decreasing frequency on the route to Oslo and further termination of service to Kiev Zhulyany and Stockholm Skvasta in late October 2018. In October 2018, EasyJet ended its only route from Lublin, a service to Milan Malpensa.anna.aero - easyJet confirms 1,000th route, however airline is closing 32 airport pairs this winter; 28 destinations see capacity cuts
(English) 16 July 2018 In January 2021, the airport opened a small cargo facility.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Lublin Airport:

Passenger statistics

Ground transportation

Train

Lublin Airport was accessible by rail, a railway station inside the airport terminal built at the end of a dedicated 3.7 kilometre line. The connection to Lublin's main railway station was provided by EMU (Electric Multiple Unit), EN57AL series 3000. The journey took approximately 15 minutes from Lublin Central Station.Lublin Airport
/ref> With patronage having fallen to below 50 passengers a day, it was replaced by a bus service in November 2021.Short-Lived Airport Railway Closes ''

Modern Railways ''Modern Railways'' is a British monthly magazine covering the rail transport industry which was published by Ian Allan until March 2012, and Key Publishing since then. It has been published since 1962. The magazine was originally based in She ...

'' issue 880 January 2022 page 101

Bus

There is a dedicated bus service to the airport, with a flexible schedule, which starts its run to the airport 2 hours before each flight departure, and leaves the airport 25 minutes after flight arrival.

Car

The airport is located close to Expressways S17 and S12.

References

External links

Official website of Lublin Airport

Official website of Lublin Airport
{{authority control Airports in Poland Buildings and structures in Lublin Airports established in 2012