BAA lobbies Poland

By Kamil Tchorek

Colin Oakley, Route Development manager at BAA (British Airport Authority) London Stansted Airport, has completed a mission to Poland to raise awareness in the flight industry about the low-budget market. The visit throws down the gauntlet to more conservative elements of the air industry who are reluctant to face next year's so-called 'freeing up of the skies' head on.

London Stansted Airport has a long history of low-budget flying and is the world's fastest growing airport. Oakley is pushing to make sure that the continued growth includes cheap routes to Poland as soon as possible. He has been in preliminary talks with Okęcie airport and LOT, as well as the airports at Katowice, Wrocław and Kraków and fledgling low-cost Polish air carriers.

"Meetings have been very upbeat and positive," says Oakley. "Though there is a little shell-shock at this stage. It has to be said that low-budget flying will enter the market one way or another, and I am hoping that Polish airports and airlines of every description take this as an opportunity rather than as a threat."

Though there are already several low-cost routes into Central Europe, notably to destinations such as Prague, Bratislava and Budapest, Poland's skies have remained notoriously expensive for the common traveler. Warsaw's Okęcie, in particular, is said to have reached capacity and so has no space to take on any more passengers.

Off the record, some industry insiders have complained that the established airports, in unison with the flag carriers, are attached to a high-price culture and may only learn when the low-cost empires of Ryannair and Air Berlin expand into Poland, thanks to the creation of new international destinations such as Katowice and Modlin, less than an hour's drive to the north-west of Warsaw.

Another potential destination under development is the former Polish Air Force base at Szymany, which invited Oakley for a consultancy visit. Szymany is forty kilometres south-east of Olsztyn, and a three hour drive from Warsaw. 'Mazuria International Airport', as it is now called, is planned to cater particularly for tourists flying in from western Germany who wish to visit the historically German region of East Prussia.

"We want this airport to develop through low-budget carriers," says Jerzy Kos, president of the airport. "Mr Oakley is showing us how to deal with the low-budget airlines, what they expect from an airport and how they work."

At this stage the airport is being developed and promoted without the assistance of the central government. "We have independently sent letters of intent to all the major low-budget lines," says Kos, "...and we are also interested in making links with southern Polish airports. The low-budget airlines want to get into Poland, and we are their opportunity."

Technically, Mazuria International is ready to start receiving scheduled international flights today. Since the air force left three years ago, the site has been regularly used by cargo aircraft and has had a small number of chartered passenger flights. "We have further potential because the Russian city of Kaliningrad is only 100 kilometers away," forecasts Kos, "...and by coach link, that will make Mazuria the connection between cheap internal EU flights and Russian internal flights."

At the end of his trip, Colin Oakley concluded, "It's not a question of 'if' there will be a revolution in Polish air travel, but 'who' will do it and 'when.' I think Poland is a fascinating country, and I have met British people here who come here because they think the same way. If only it were cheaper and easier to get here from Western Europe, there would be far more visitors like them."