The Lithuanian air company flyLAL announced today the opening of an operational base at the Katowice International Airport. flyLAL will be the third operator, among Wizz Air and LOT, which established its operational base at the Airport. Flights from Katowice will be operated using Boeing 737-300 aircraft with Polish crew on board. For the present, a one aircraft will be based at the Airport, the number will increase to three in the future.
During the summer of 2010 flyLAL will carry out flights from Katowice to various holiday destinations. The first flight is planned in late May to Palma de Mallorca (Spain). “We are glad to start our business in Poland, a country with great market potential. Having accumulated much experience in other European states, we can now offer high level, professional and safe services to Polish tourists and our partners. Today Polish people can have the opportunity to select from even wider choice of holiday destinations for a competitive price” – says flyLAL charters president Vytautas Kaikaris.
The Katowice Airport is the only one in Poland which is able to service Airbus aircrafts. According to Airport authorities, the main asset is the technical maintenance and service base as well as plans for further expansion of the parking aprons, a new cargo terminal and a new runway strip. In the next six years, this second biggest Polish regional airport plans to invest PLN 630 million to develop the infrastructure.
The Airport served 2,36 million passengers last year. The Terminal B, officially put into operation on July 2007, has enabled handling up to 3,6 million passengers annually in comfortable conditions.
Last days new routes to Dusseldorf-Weeze in Germany (Wizz Air) and Chania in Crete (Viking Airlines) were started. The Airport will also have four new routes to offer next weeks: Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (SmartWings), Warsaw, Poland (LOT) and Burgas, Bulgaria (Wizz Air).