Five new regular routes and five new charter services will be offered from Katowice Airport this year. The Upper Silesian Aviation Group (GTL) expects to handle 3,3 million passengers in 2016.
It will be three hundred thousand travelers more than in the last year. The expansion of the TUI Poland will have a strong influence on the growth that is predicted. The tour operator plans to double its customers traveling from KTW from 53 thousand to 110 thousand at the end of 2016. TUI is the first tour operator at the Polish market, which will open a direct, long-distance charter service from a regional airport – a new route to Punta Cana in Dominicana will be inaugurated at KTW on 7th of July this year. TUI’s Boeing 767-300 will fly to the island once a week until October. „We consider to offer the service during the winter season aw well and make it an all-year route. Everything will depend on the interest expressed by our customers” – commented Marek Andryszak, chairman of the board of TUI Poland.
Apart from the new route to Punta Cana, new charter services to Cagliari (BP Itaka), Almeria (Rainbow), Evia and Lesbos (both to be serviced by Grecos) will be offered from Katowice Airport. The regular routes will include Liverpool and Alghero (both serviced by Wizz Air), Corfu (Ryanair), Thessaloniki and Heraklion (both by Ellinair).
In 2016, the Upper Silesian Aviation Group will finish two important investment undertakings. The first one is the renovation of the A terminal. The capacity of the terminal will be increased by 50% within the works. Additionally, a new cargo terminal will be delivered at the end of the second quarter. It will offer ten thousand sq. meters of usable area and two thousand sq. meters of office spaces.