Rzeszów Ulma Airport is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

located in southeastern

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 ...

, in Jasionka, a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

from the center of the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ) 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 is the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship and the county seat, seat of Rzeszów C ...

. Not to be confused with the much smaller used by

Rzeszów University of Technology Rzeszów University of Technology, also known as Rzeszów Polytechnic () or Ignacy Łukasiewicz University of Technology, is a state-run institution of higher education in Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It ...

and Rzeszów Aeroclub, it is the eighth-busiest airport in Poland.

History

Foundation and early years

Passenger domestic services to Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport began on 30 November 1945 with the opening of the circular domestic airline route number 1/2 Warszawa – Łódź –Kraków – Rzeszów – Lublin – Warszawa. The airport was re-built and opened for commercial traffic in 1949 after the first facilities built in 1940 were destroyed in 1944. In 1999, the

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force () is the aerial warfare Military branch, branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 26,000 military personnel an ...

, which had a presence at Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport since its opening, permanently closed its Rzeszów–Jasionka air base as part of an agreement by the Polish Ministry of Defence. On 2 June 2007,

LOT Polish Airlines LOT Polish Airlines, legally Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A. (, ''flight''), is the flag carrier of Poland. A founding member of IATA, it is one of the world's oldest airlines. With a fleet of 87 aircraft as of June 2025, LOT is Europe's 16th ...

commenced seasonal services to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

John F. Kennedy International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area. JFK Airport is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is ...

and Newark's

Newark Liberty International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport is a major international airport serving the New York metropolitan area. The airport straddles the boundary between the cities of Newark, New Jersey, Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and E ...

. Service to JFK has since ceased operations. As of January 2008, the airport has had scheduled international flights to

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

and London–Stansted, in addition to its domestic connection with

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Development since 2010

In 2009–10, it registered an 18.66% increase in passenger traffic serving 451,720 passengers in 2010. Coupled with the September 2006 start of construction on a new passenger terminal, this means that the airport is undergoing a rapid expansion, albeit in fits and starts, owing to delays in setting up the management company and obtaining financing and routes. The new passenger terminal opened in May 2012. As of 2014, Rzeszów Airport had been cited as an airport with below-forecast passenger numbers and an inefficient usage of EU subsidies. Rzeszow Jasionka Airport, however, underwent an ECA (European Court of Auditors) audit in 2014 and – among 20 other European airports – its marks were positive in terms of efficiency and legitimacy using EU funds on airports' modernisation. During the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the airport has been used as a trans-shipment hub for Ukraine's civil, NGO and government supporters to resupply Ukraine and its people with medical aid, weapons and supplies. Weapons and medical supplies are flown to the airport and then driven along the

autostrada A4 The Autostrada A4, or Autostrada Serenissima (" Serenissima motorway"), is an '' autostrada'' (Italian for "motorway") long in Italy located in the regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia which connects Turin and Trieste ...

to the Polish-Ukrainian border. On 9 March 2022, the United States deployed two

MIM-104 Patriot The MIM-104 Patriot is a mobile interceptor missile surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary such system used by the United States Army and several allied states. It is manufactured by the U.S. defense contractor Raytheon and derives it ...

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

systems to the airport in what it called a "precautionary defensive move." On 5 March 2022, US Secretary of State

Antony Blinken Antony John Blinken (born April 16, 1962) is an American lawyer and diplomat who served as the 71st United States secretary of state from 2021 to 2025. He previously served as Deputy National Security Advisor, deputy national security advisor ...

landed in Rzeszów to meet with Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs

Dmytro Kuleba Dmytro Ivanovych Kuleba ( ; born 19 April 1981) is a Ukrainian politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was concurrently a member of the National Defense and Security Council of Ukraine. The youngest foreign affai ...

in Ukraine. The President of the United States

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

landed on

Air Force One Air Force One is the official air traffic control-designated Aviation call signs, call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. The term is commonly used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modifie ...

in Rzeszów twice, on 25 March 2022 to meet American troops, and on 19 February 2023, on the way to Kyiv. On 22 March 2023,

William, Prince of Wales William, Prince of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales. William was born during the reign of his pat ...

, landed in Rzeszów to meet British and Polish troops. On 24 March 2024 Polish President

Andrzej Duda Andrzej Sebastian Duda (born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as the sixth president of Poland since 2015. Before becoming president, he served as a Member of the Sejm from 2011 to 2014 and before becoming Member of ...

named the Airport after the Ulma Family, Polish citizens who were killed 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 ...

after Nazi Army discovered that they were helping Jews.

Facilities

Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport, situated north of Rzeszów, features the third-longest runway in Poland: . The airport is therefore capable of handling some of the world's largest aircraft, such as the

Antonov Antonov (d/b/a Antonov Company, formerly the Aeronautical Scientific-Technical Complex named after Antonov or Antonov ASTC, and earlier the Antonov Design Bureau, for its chief designer, Oleg Antonov) is a Ukrainian aircraft manufacturing and ...

An-124 and

An-225 The Antonov An-225 Mriya (; NATO reporting name: Cossack) was a large strategic airlift cargo aircraft designed and produced by the Antonov, Antonov Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. It was originally developed during the 1980s as an enlarged ...

Boeing C-17 Globemaster III The McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is a large military transport aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF) between the 1980s to the early 1990s by McDonnell Douglas. The C-17 carries forward the name of two previ ...

Lockheed C-130 Hercules The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 w ...

and the

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a long-range wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2023. After the introduction of the Boeing 707, 707 in October 1958, Pan Am ...

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled flights to and from Rzeszów:

Statistics

Ground transportation

Rail

On 3 October 2023 a new rail link between the airport and Rzeszów Główny railway station opened, operated by Podkarpacka Kolej Aglomeracyjna. The journey takes 18 minutes and a single ticket costs 4 PLN.

Bus

The airport also features scheduled bus services from MPK and MKS to Rzeszów city centre.

References

External links

Official website

Rzeszow airport rail link opened
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport Airports in Poland Buildings and structures in Subcarpathian Voivodeship Transport in Subcarpathian Voivodeship Rzeszów County