Low cost but high numbers

According to statistics published by the Civil Aviation Office (ULC), 4.69 million passengers traveled by plane in Poland in the first half of 2005. Although LOT Polish Airliners remained the largest carrier, having serviced 2.18 million passengers in the first six months of the year, low-cost airlines are proving to be a tough competition for the traditional carriers.

Together budget airlines carried 1.24 million passengers in Poland, which amounts to 26.7 percent of all passengers. What's more, four low-cost fliers count themselves among the top ten carriers in Poland. Hungarian Wizz Air was the second largest carrier behind LOT with 521,000 passengers serviced (11.22 percent of the market), followed by Lufthansa (6.29 percent), and three low-costs - SkyEurope from Slovakia (4.9 percent), Britian's Easy Jet (4.54 percent) and the Polish Centralwings (2.99 percent).

Two other cheap carriers, Germanwings and RyanAir, were ranked 11 and 16 respectively. However, RyanAir is widely expected to improve its place next time the ranking is published as it currently operates only in Wrocław. At the end of October, however, the Irish low-cost giant will commence flights from six other Polish cities.