Passenger traffic at Polish airports increased by 35% last year against 2020, but was still down by 60% compared to 2019, due to the recurring waves of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Civil Aviation Authority (ULC) said.
“Due to the pandemic, new restrictions on air travel continued or were imposed, which made it difficult to rebuild the traffic,” UCL wrote in a statement posted on its website on May 3.
“Nevertheless, the improvement was noticeable, especially in the second half of the year,” it added.
The results of a new study by UCL showed that in 2021 Polish airports serviced just over 19.6 million passengers, whereas the number of air operations (take-offs and landings) at all Polish airports reached nearly 191,000, up by 23% from 2020, but down by 52% compared to 2019.
Most passenger traffic went through Warsaw’s Chopin Airport, which serviced 7.4 million passengers, up by 2 million and down by 11.4 million.
Krakow’s Balice airport, in southern Poland, placed second with 3.1 million passengers handled in 2021, up by 477,00 and down by 5.3 million.
Katowice’s Pyrzowice airport, in southern Poland, was the third, with 2.3 million passengers serviced last year, up by 874,00 and down by 2.5 million.
According to ULC, Poland’s national airline (LOT Polish Airlines) carried 4.8 million passengers to and from Poland last year, an increase of 1 million from 2020 and a decrease of 7.3 million against 2019.
ULC data also showed that the highest number of passengers traveled to and from Great Britain, Germany and Italy. (The First News/Business World Magazine)
