The good years ahead
Błażej Karwowski: It is expected that there will be about 1,500-2,000 complaints yearly under the new EU air traffic regulations. How many are there at the moment?
Krzysztof Kapis: Right now we have about a hundred, more or less, but that is just the beginning, particularly because it has not been long since the Civil Aviation Office was identified as the department responsible for registering these issues. But the estimates are based on comparisons with other countries. We have to wait a few months to see the real influence.
Driving to Fryderyk Chopin airport in Warsaw is becoming more difficult by the week. How do you plan to tackle this?
There is a framework agreement signed some two years ago and it is being implemented. Here in Warsaw this concerns providing roadways, and not only increasing traffic capacity of the existing routes from the city center, but also connections such as the one from Ursynów [south Warsaw]. What is extremely important in the long perspective, although quite costly, is the airport's railway connection with Warsaw's center.
We have had a significant increase in air traffic in Poland. How does this situation compare to our neighbors, for example the Czechs?
In fact we had a 26 percent increase in traffic last year. The Czechs have 50 percent more traffic than Poland. In 2004, if I remember correctly, they had [a] 23 percent [year-on-year rise]. Everything is going quite fast there.
Will aircraft traffic growth flatten out in Poland?
I assume one cannot hold such strong dynamics in the long run. If we succeeded in sustaining 10 to 15 percent over the next two years I would consider it a very good result. But for this to be possible, we need to meet many conditions. Our product, the airports, have to be very good, or good at least and to be reasonably priced so they can attract airlines to our country. Still, a 38 million-strong nation has a chance for air traffic to be considerably larger.
Almost all Polish airports generated profits last year and will most likely start inevsting. What do they lack?
In several years time the capacity of terminals should correspond with the capacity of airstrips. This will happen in Warsaw, where specialists estimate the navigation system and airstrips will allow about 12 million passengers [a year] to be serviced. At the moment the terminal is a bottleneck. After the new terminal is finished, the whole complex will service 12 million passengers so we will have a coherence of both infrastructures.
Is 35 million passengers in 2020 a wish or a forecast?
Those are our forecasts and, I think, very rational ones. This prognosis assumes that the country's development will proceed at a similar pace to the current level. From our perspective the number may sound imposing, but on an air map of Europe it's not too much, to be honest. Today Frankfurt alone services 44 million passengers.
Interviewed by
Błażej Karwowski
Krzysztof Kapis: Right now we have about a hundred, more or less, but that is just the beginning, particularly because it has not been long since the Civil Aviation Office was identified as the department responsible for registering these issues. But the estimates are based on comparisons with other countries. We have to wait a few months to see the real influence.
Driving to Fryderyk Chopin airport in Warsaw is becoming more difficult by the week. How do you plan to tackle this?
There is a framework agreement signed some two years ago and it is being implemented. Here in Warsaw this concerns providing roadways, and not only increasing traffic capacity of the existing routes from the city center, but also connections such as the one from Ursynów [south Warsaw]. What is extremely important in the long perspective, although quite costly, is the airport's railway connection with Warsaw's center.
We have had a significant increase in air traffic in Poland. How does this situation compare to our neighbors, for example the Czechs?
In fact we had a 26 percent increase in traffic last year. The Czechs have 50 percent more traffic than Poland. In 2004, if I remember correctly, they had [a] 23 percent [year-on-year rise]. Everything is going quite fast there.
Will aircraft traffic growth flatten out in Poland?
I assume one cannot hold such strong dynamics in the long run. If we succeeded in sustaining 10 to 15 percent over the next two years I would consider it a very good result. But for this to be possible, we need to meet many conditions. Our product, the airports, have to be very good, or good at least and to be reasonably priced so they can attract airlines to our country. Still, a 38 million-strong nation has a chance for air traffic to be considerably larger.
Almost all Polish airports generated profits last year and will most likely start inevsting. What do they lack?
In several years time the capacity of terminals should correspond with the capacity of airstrips. This will happen in Warsaw, where specialists estimate the navigation system and airstrips will allow about 12 million passengers [a year] to be serviced. At the moment the terminal is a bottleneck. After the new terminal is finished, the whole complex will service 12 million passengers so we will have a coherence of both infrastructures.
Is 35 million passengers in 2020 a wish or a forecast?
Those are our forecasts and, I think, very rational ones. This prognosis assumes that the country's development will proceed at a similar pace to the current level. From our perspective the number may sound imposing, but on an air map of Europe it's not too much, to be honest. Today Frankfurt alone services 44 million passengers.
Interviewed by
Błażej Karwowski
