Modlin Airport and Ryanair expect new passenger number record in 2015

Modlin Airport, also referred to as Warsaw-Modlin Airport is the secondary airport of the Polish capital, located approx. 25 miles northwest of Warsaw city centre. As per late 2014 the Irish budget carrier Ryanair is the sole airline operating in Modlin.

Despite the considerable distance from Warsaw and a series of technical difficulties which haunted the airport ever since its inauguration in 2012, Modlin Airport has registered very good results results both in number of passengers and in the number of flights operated on international and domestic routes.

Modlin Airport rapid growth in 2014
In the period between January and November 2014m, 1.5 million passengers used Modlin Airport. The total number of passengers served by the end of 2014 is estimated at 1.7 million, making Modlin Airport the fastest growing airport in Poland.

Those are quite impressive numbers, taking into consideration the problems the airport struggled with in its early days: frequent flight delays or cancelations resulting from the lack of ILS (Instrumental Landing System, allowing to land in a foggy weather) and temporary ceasing of activity for a runway repair for a period of six months, much longer than initially expected. While Wizzair, one of the first “tenants” at Modlin Airport, discouraged with the notorious technical problems decided not to return to Modlin, after the airport reopening in 2013 (it operates at the time from Poland’s main airport, Warsaw-Chopin), Ryanair re-established and actually strengthen its position in Modlin, which became the airline’s new Polish base. With an over $90 million investment and introducing new exciting low-cost routes Ryanair managed to bring customers back to Modlin Airport. 2.5 million passengers are expected to pass by Modlin Aiport in 2015.

Ryanair routes in Modlin
As per late 2014, Ryanair flights from Modlin Airport are available to the following destinations: Alicante, Barcelona, Beauvais, Bergamo, Bristol, Chania, Charleroi, Dublin, East Midlands, Eindhoven, Fuerteventura, Gdansk, Glasgow-International, Gran Canaria, Liverpool, London-Stansted, Manchester, Marseille, Moss/Rygge, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Rome-Ciampino, Shannon, Stockholm-Skavsta, Tenerife South, Thessaloniki, Trapani, Wroclaw.

Ryanair flights Modlin-Athens and Modlin-Copenhagen were announced for March 2015.

The other side of the coin – the cons of Modlin Airport
Recently, Modlin Airport has been featured, at quite a high position, in another ranking. Traveller’s website The Guide to Sleeping in Airports, based on the readers’ votes appointed Modlin Airport as the ninth worst airport in Europe. Long queues to check-in desks, insufficient seats and generally, lack of modern amenities at a fairly recent airport were the biggest flaws, according to the voters. Free Wi-Fi access, it has to be said though, was considered a plus. Modlin Airport “competed” in the ranking with much larger European airports, amongst them Paris-Beauvais, Frankfurt-Hahn and Milan-Bergamo (Orio al Serio) airports which ingloriously ranked on the first, second and third position.

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