Lodz Airport Central Poland , formerly known as ''Łódź-Lublinek Airport'', is a regional

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

in central

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, located approximately southwest of

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

city center. Łódź ranked 8th among Polish airports in 2013 in passenger numbers. The airport has been in operation since 13 September 1925 and has recently undergone a number of upgrades, enabling it to handle services by low cost airlines to destinations in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

History

Early years

Łódź Airport opened on 13 September 1925. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the German occupying forces improved the airport for military use, by building a concrete runway. In the immediate postwar years, the airport was a key transport hub, but that role diminished by the 1950s with the development of Warsaw airport. By the end of the decade, regular passenger connections to Łódź were suspended. Wiśniewski, p. 74. Efforts to restart passenger traffic were undertaken in the 1990s. In 1997, a new passenger terminal (capacity approx. 50,000/year) was opened. Since 1997, ''Port Lotniczy Łódź-Lublinek sp. z o.o.'' (''Lodz-Lublinek Airport LLC'') has been the operator of the airport, changing its name in 2007 to ''Port Lotniczy Łódź im. Władysława Reymonta Sp. z o.o.'' (''LODZ WLADYSLAW REYMONT AIRPORT LLC'').

Development since the 2000s

On 31 October 2002, an ILS/DME System ( instrument landing system/

distance measuring equipment In aviation, distance measuring equipment (DME) is a radio navigation technology that measures the slant range (distance) between an aircraft and a ground station by timing the propagation delay of radio signals in the frequency band between 9 ...

) was installed at the airport. In September 2005, the runway was extended from to in order to accommodate larger aircraft, such as the

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

. On 28 October 2005, a new passenger terminal, Terminal 2 (capacity approx. about 300,000/year) was opened. Two days later, the first Boeing 737 in the history of the Łódź Airport landed. On 19 January 2007, the runway extension to was put into use. In June 2012, the brand-new Terminal 3 with a capacity for 1.5–2 million passengers per year was opened. The capacity is more than 5 times that of the old terminal. Terminal 2 was dismantled and sold to

Radom Radom is a city in east-central Poland, located approximately south of the capital, Warsaw. It is situated on the Mleczna River in the Masovian Voivodeship. Radom is the fifteenth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in its province w ...

for their new airport. The airport has been renamed after the celebrated 20th century Polish writer and the winner of the 1924

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

, Władysław Reymont. After the A2 motorway between Łódź and Warsaw opened in 2012, which reduced the travel time between the two cities to about one hour, the Łódź airport has faced tougher competition from the two Warsaw airports ( Warsaw Chopin and Warsaw-Modlin). As a consequence, the number of passengers using it has fallen. The airport no longer has any domestic destinations since the

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

of OLT Express in July 2012, which had also planned a number of international services. Due to low passengers numbers, Łódź Airport has been cited as an example of inefficient use of EU subsidies. In October 2019,

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

terminated their short-lived route to Munich Airport.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport:

Statistics

References

Bibliography

External links

Official website of Łódź Airport

Official website of Łódź Airport

Lotnisko dla Łodzi Association (The ''Airport for Łódź'' Association)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lodz Wladyslaw Reymont Airport

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

Airports in Poland 1925 establishments in Poland Buildings and structures in Łódź Airports established in 1925