Warsaw Modlin Airport is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...

located in the town of

Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki , often simply referred to as Nowy Dwór, is a town in east-central Poland with ca. 42500 inhabitants (2008). It is situated in the Masovian Voivodeship (since 1999); previously, it was in Warszawa Voivodeship (1975–1998) ...

, approximately 40 km (25 miles) north of central

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 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. The airport is intended to be used by

low-cost carrier A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

s serving Warsaw. As of 2017, it is the fifth busiest airport in the country, with 2,932,639 passengers served annually. The airport's only regular connections are served by

Ryanair Ryanair is an Irish ultra low-cost carrier founded in 1984. It is headquartered in Swords, Dublin, Ireland and has its primary operational bases at Dublin and London Stansted airports. It forms the largest part of the Ryanair Holdings family ...

, while other carriers, such as

Enter Air Enter Air Sp. z o.o. is a Polish charter airline with its head office in Warsaw, Poland, and main base at Warsaw Chopin Airport and Katowice Airport. It operates holiday and charter flights out of its hubs in Poznań, Warsaw and Wrocław. His ...

, operate seasonal services. The main international airport of the city is Warsaw Chopin Airport.

History

Earlier usage

Originally designed for military use in the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

in 1937, it was not opened by Polish authorities. Instead, it was made operational 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 ...

in 1940 as an airbase by the German

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 ...

in occupied Poland. Postwar, between 1945 and 2000, it was used by Polish and Soviet air forces. In 2000, the Polish Ministry of National Defence declared the airfield closed. The airport's runway was in poor condition and lacked proper lighting and modern radio navigation aids such as an Instrument Landing System.

Redevelopment

Subsequently, much of its original area was made available as capital in a joint management

limited liability Limited liability is a legal status in which a person's financial liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a corporation, company or partnership. If a company that provides limited liability to it ...

company created to run the future airport, Port Lotniczy Mazowsze Warszawa-Modlin Sp. z o.o. The airport was converted for civilian use, primarily as a replacement for the now closed Etiuda terminal for low-cost carriers at Warsaw's main airport, this idea emerged in the early 2000s. Numerous projected opening dates had slipped, and business plans with extensive infrastructure improvements, including a new passenger terminal, had been proposed without any actual progress in the construction for some time. An environmental assessment was completed as well. A schedule, announced in February 2008 had the airport opening for business in early 2010. On 8 February 2010, the airport was registered officially as a civil airport by the Polish Aviation Authority (Urząd Lotnictwa Cywilnego). In September 2009, it was announced that tenders were being accepted and funding had been secured from the EU for an opening in 2011, in time for the Euro 2012 Football Tournament. Construction works finally began in October 2010 and were expected to be completed before Euro 2012; however the deadline was not met and instead the airport began to operate in July 2012. A new 5 km rail spur branching off from the existing Warsaw– Gdynia line will be built with an underground station at the airport, theoretically providing a 30-minute commute to Warsaw centre. Although the first aircraft was meant to depart Modlin on 16 July 2012, the airport was officially inaugurated the day before, and the first passenger flight from

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

arrived at the airport around 17:30. Low-cost-airlines

Wizz Air Wizz Air, legally incorporated as Wizz Air Hungary Ltd. ( hu, Wizz Air Hungary Légiközlekedési Zrt.) is a Hungarian ultra-low-cost carrier with its head office in Budapest, Hungary. The airline serves many cities across Europe, as well as s ...

and

started to use the airport as bases.

Struggle and growth

On 22 December 2012, it was announced that the runway at the airport would be closed to larger aircraft such as the

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

and

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...

indefinitely for safety reasons. Ryanair confirmed on the day of the runway closure it would divert all aircraft to Warsaw-Chopin Airport until the runway was repaired. Wizz Air also confirmed that it would route its flights to Chopin Airport until Modlin re-opened. The official re-opening took place over six months later on 4 July 2013 after construction works to fix the runway had been completed. On 17 July 2013,

announced it would not return to Modlin despite its re-opening, but stay at Warsaw-Chopin Airport instead.

returned to Modlin on 30 September 2013 and since added more routes to its initial schedule. On 19 September 2013, the Category I Instrument Landing System was officially ready for use. At the same time tests began for the Category II Instrument Landing System which was ready for use by 1 May 2014. In October 2015, the airport welcomed its 5th millionth passenger overall. In December of the same year, an airport lounge was inaugurated. Since the inauguration of the new airport, its only current user Ryanair increased the network served from Modlin to 35 destinations by April 2016.

Facilities

Terminal

The airport features a new, one-storey passenger terminal building containing all departures and arrivals facilities as well as some shops. The apron features stands for 10 aircraft, as there are no jet-bridges, bus and walk boarding is used.

Runway

The airport has one

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

runway 2,500 m long and 60 m wide at an elevation of 104 m which also features a parallel taxiway on its entire length.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Modlin:

Statistics

Aviation services

Into-plane fueling services are handled by BGS.

Ground transport

Car

The airport is located 35 km north-west of Warsaw near national road 62, which is connected to motorway S7 that leads to Warsaw city center and

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

.modlinairport.pl - Access
retrieved 13 August 2016

Coach

Two coach operators, ''ModlinBus'' and ''OKbus'', provide services from the airport to Warsaw and

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 the towns of

Biała Podlaska Biała Podlaska ( la, Alba Ducalis) is a city in eastern Poland with 56,498 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is situated in the Lublin Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been the capital of Biała Podlaska Voivodeship (1975–1998). ...

Toruń )'' , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_flag = POL Toruń flag.svg , image_shield = POL Toruń COA.svg , nickname = City of Angels, Gingerbread city, Copernicus Town , pushpin_map = Kuyavian-Pom ...

Ciechocinek Ciechocinek (Polish pronunciation: ; German (1941-1945): ''Hermannsbad'') is a spa town in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-central Poland, located on the Vistula River about east of Aleksandrów Kujawski and south-east of the city of Toru ...

Włocławek Włocławek (Polish pronunciation: ; german: Leslau) is a city located in central Poland along the Vistula (Wisła) River and is bordered by the Gostynin-Włocławek Landscape Park. As of December 2021, the population of the city is 106,928. Loc ...

, and Płock several times a day.

Train

The airport itself does not have a railway station, however, there are frequent shuttle bus services to the

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

in Modlin (distance of 4 km), where local or long-distance trains depart to Warsaw up to 62 times a day. 21 of these services (every 60 minutes) run via

Warsaw Central station Warszawa Centralna, in English known as Warsaw Central Station, is the primary railway station in Warsaw, Poland. Completed in 1975, the station is located on the Warsaw Cross-City Line and features four underground island platforms with eight tr ...

to Warsaw Chopin Airport while others terminate at Warsaw West station. In the other direction, most services terminate at Modlin while some continue to Działdowo. There is however an unelectrified, disused branch line formerly for military use branching off from Modlin railway station to Modlin Airport Parking Lot 7 (with another branch ending near the New Modlin Orthodox cemetery) that can potentially be refurbished and reactivated for passenger service. A future railway station built underneath the Modlin Airport terminal building has been in discussion since December 2009, with a potential connection to Warsaw Chopin Airport via Warsaw city centre by SKM commuter rail estimated to be established only after 2023.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Warsaw-Modlin Mazovia Airport Airports in Poland Poland–Soviet Union relations Soviet Air Force bases Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki County Buildings and structures in Masovian Voivodeship Airports established in 2012 Military installations of the Soviet Union in other countries