Wrocław Nicolaus Copernicus Airport () is an international civil-military

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 ...

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

Lower Silesian Voivodeship Lower Silesian Voivodeship (, ) in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divided. It covers an area of and has a total population of 2,899,986. It is one of the wealthiest ...

in southwestern

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 ...

. It is Poland's 5th busiest airport. In 2023, it handled over 3.8 million passengers. The airport is located west of the city centre, at ul. Graniczna 190. It has one

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

, one passenger terminal, one

cargo terminal In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in case ...

and one

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

terminal. Wrocław Airport is also often used by

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 ...

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

air force and Heavy Airlift Wing.

History

Early years

The airport was built in 1938 as ''Flugplatz Breslau-Schöngarten'' Airport for

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

military purposes before

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 ...

, when the city was still part of Germany. It was the site of a military aviation school, the ''Luftkriegsschule Breslau-Schöngarten'', later renamed ''Luftkriegsschule 5''. Among the

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

units stationed here just before the war were the Sturzkampfgeschwader 77, Kampfgeschwader 76, and Kampfgeschwader 1 "Hindenburg". It was operated briefly by

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

forces following the war before being used for

civilian A civilian is a person who is not a member of an armed force. It is war crime, illegal under the law of armed conflict to target civilians with military attacks, along with numerous other considerations for civilians during times of war. If a civi ...

purposes in 1945. Services were operated to

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 ...

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 ...

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

and

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

. By 1992 destinations also included

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

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 ...

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

and

Koszalin Koszalin (; ; , ) is a city in northwestern Poland, in Western Pomerania. It is located south of the Baltic Sea coast, and intersected by the river Dzierżęcinka. Koszalin is also a county-status city and capital of Koszalin County of West Pomera ...

. 'Port Lotniczy Wrocław S. A.' was established as a company in January 1992 and Wrocław Airport assets operated by the state-owned Polish Airports authority were transferred to the company in January 1993. The first international flights were inaugurated in January 1993, serving

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, Germany. Significant airport improvements have been completed in the late twentieth century. A new international departures terminal was opened in May 1997 followed by a new domestic terminal in November 1998.

Developments since the 2000s

A cargo terminal, international arrivals hall, and installation of a new

meteorological Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agriculture ...

system were completed in 1999; new fire station and apron extensions in 2000. A new

air traffic control tower Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled ai ...

and duty-free area followed in 2001. On 6 December 2005, the airport was renamed after the famous

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

Nicolaus Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a mathematical model, model of Celestial spheres#Renaissance, the universe that placed heliocentrism, the Sun rather than Earth at its cen ...

(), who studied and received a scholarship in Wrocław, and was a scholaster of the Wrocław Collegiate Holy Cross and St. Bartholomew in the years 1503–1538. However, after a rebrand in 2014, the name has been dropped. Terminal extensions were officially opened on the same day, increasing the airport's capacity to 750,000 passengers per year. This capacity was quickly exceeded by several hundred thousand (in the first 9 months of 2007 the airport served 972,505 passengers) so the existing terminal space was expanded by to alleviate some of the congestion, but more importantly make the terminal facilities conform to the requirements of the

Schengen Agreement The Schengen Agreement ( , ) is a treaty which led to the creation of Europe's Schengen Area, in which internal border checks have largely been abolished. It was signed on 14 June 1985, near the town of Schengen, Luxembourg, by five of the t ...

, which was implemented at Poland's airports on 31 March 2008. On 19 July 2006, the architectural firm JSK was chosen to design a significant airport expansion. This includes plans for a new passenger terminal (eventually, after several stages of expansion, the airport will be able to handle 7 million passengers yearly) and assorted taxiway, apron and navigation equipment improvements ( ILS). Also, car parking will be expanded to 1,000 spaces. The first stage, increasing the passenger capacity to 3.5 million yearly, officially opened on 29 February 2012. However, the new terminal opened to passengers on 11 March 2012. In May 2014, the HEMS ( Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) base was launched at the airport. in 2015, Ryanair announced that it has selected Wrocław Airport for its aircraft maintenance base. The construction of the hangar to fit 2 C-type aircraft (

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 ...

) was finished in June 2017. The airport has upgraded to ILS system from category I to category II in April 2016. Until it was reformed (30 June 2010), the 3rd Air Base, whose

barracks Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...

complex adjoins the airport also used the main runway of the airport. From 14 September 2020, the airport serves a regular cargo connection Wrocław -

Cologne Bonn Airport Cologne Bonn Airport () is an international airport in north-western Germany. It serves the country's fourth-largest city Cologne, as well as Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. With approximately 12.4 million passengers passing through i ...

carried out by

ATR 72 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by aircraft manufacturer ATR. The number "72" in its name is derived from the aircraft's typical standard seating capacity of 72 pa ...

plane by Swiftair for UPS. On November 16 - December 24, 2021, the second connection was carried out on this route, by Saab SF-340 plane by Airest. In October 2022, Ryanair began the expansion of WAMS (Wrocław Aircraft Maintenance Services) with another hangar and two spaces for C-type aircraft (Boeing 737). The Airport also announced a number of projects including new taxiways, additional apron space and deicing designated space. In November 2023, the airport started serving its first ever intercontinental flight - a

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 ...

service to

Seoul Incheon Airport Incheon International Airport is the main international airport serving Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It is also one of the largest and busiest airports in the world. This airport opened for business on 29 March 2001, to replace the old ...

, which primarily serves Wrocław's Korean diaspora.

Facilities

The airport operates modern domestic, international and cargo terminals. The international terminal contains a

duty-free A duty-free shop or store is a retail outlet whose goods are exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country, who will ...

area in the international departures hall. The cargo terminal, located beside the airport

fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire apparatus, fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equ ...

and

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

tower, has a storage area of , a

bonded warehouse A bonded warehouse, or bond, is a building or other secured area in which imported but dutiable goods may be stored, manipulated, or undergo manufacturing operations without payment of duty. They may then be again exported without payment of duty. ...

freezer A refrigerator, commonly shortened to fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external enviro ...

and

radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is conside ...

materials warehouse.

US Armed Forces Main Operating Base

Due to the existence of

garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...

s nearby (

Bolesławiec Bolesławiec (pronounced , ) is a historic city situated on the Bóbr River in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the administrative seat of Bolesławiec County, and of Gmina Bolesławiec, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Gm ...

, Pstrąże,

Świętoszów Świętoszów () is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Osiecznica, within Bolesławiec County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland in the Lower Silesian Wilderness, on the river Kwisa. It lies approximately north of ...

Żagań Żagań (French language, French and , ) is a town in western Poland, on the Bóbr river, with 25,731 inhabitants (2019), capital of Żagań County in the Lubusz Voivodeship, located in the historic region of Lower Silesia. Founded in the 12th ce ...

), in which US troops have been stationed as part of the Atlantic Resolve operation since January 2017, Wroclaw airport is very often used by US Air Force transport aircraft (inter alia

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 ...

Lockheed C-5 Galaxy The Lockheed C-5 Galaxy is a large military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed, and now maintained and upgraded by its successor, Lockheed Martin. It provides the United States Air Force (USAF) with a heavy ...

). On 23 September 2019, in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

, the presidents of the US and Poland signed a declaration on the deepening of defense cooperation, in which Wrocław Airport was designated as the headquarters of the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

air transport base. The District Infrastructure Board from Wrocław in July 2020 announced a tender for the preparation of pre-project documentation regarding the preparation of infrastructure for the aerial port of debarkation (APOD). On 25 September 2020, a contract was signed with the winner of the tender, which has until 30 June 2021 to complete the task.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines serve regular scheduled and charter services to and from Wrocław:

Statistics

Following are the official airport annual traffic figures.

Ground transportation

Bus and coach

The airport is served by two city bus () lines, which on their routes have many stops in the city. Line 106 (day) or 206 (night) connect to main railway station and main bus station. The journey time is 45 minutes. Line 129 through the estates Strachowice, Żerniki, Kuźniki, Gądów Mały, Popowice, Różanka, Karłowice, Poświętne with the northern part of the Psie Pole district. Line 129 also connects the airport with the nearest

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

- Wrocław Żerniki (Żernicka stop).

Car

The airport also is served by traditional

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

corporations, as well as

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...

, Bolt, . The airport offers nearly 4,000

parking space A parking space, parking place or parking spot is a location that is designated for parking, either paved or unpaved. It can be in a parking garage, in a parking lot or on a city street. The space may be delineated by road surface markings. The ...

s. There are

car rental A car rental, hire car or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time to the public, generally ranging from a few hours to a few weeks. It is often organized with numerous local branches (which allow a user t ...

s at the airport.

Bike

There is a

bike path A bike path or a cycle path is a bikeway separated from motorized traffic and dedicated to cycling or shared with pedestrians or other non-motorized users. In the US a bike path sometimes encompasses '' shared use paths'', "multi-use path", or ...

that leads to the airport.

Railway

There are plans to build a railway line between the airport and

Wrocław Główny railway station Wrocław Główny is the largest and most important passenger train station in the city of Wrocław, in southwestern Poland. Situated at the junction of several important routes, it is the largest railway station in the Lower Silesia Voivodeshi ...

. It would involve the construction of around a 2.5 km long spur from an existing railway line. A tunnel and a railway station have been designed under the main terminal, and built at the time of its construction.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrocław Airport Transport in Wrocław Airports in Poland Buildings and structures in Lower Silesian Voivodeship Airports established in 1938 1938 establishments in Germany Training establishments of the Luftwaffe