In the summer season, which ends on the last Saturday of October, passengers of Kraków Airport can fly to 83 destinations offered by 19 carriers. Compared to the previous summer season, the offer contains 16 new connections, including one offered by a carrier new to Kraków Airport – an Israeli airline, EL AL. Twenty-five destinations in the airport’s offer are strictly for summer holidays.
These will need to make way for the winter timetable, which rolls in on the last Sunday of October. Passengers will be able to choose from 16 new connections from Kraków.
Summer overview
Compared to last year’s holidays, 11% more travellers used the services of Kraków Airport in July and August – that’s nearly 1.1 million passengers in total.
Sixteen per cent of all passengers used the services of the carriers that offered sunny holiday destinations. Passengers of Kraków Airport most often spent their summer leave in Spain with nearly 77 thousand travellers choosing that destination. Madrid was the most popular of all Spanish cities on offer. Ryanair and Iberia Express carried the total of almost 19 thousand passengers between the capitals of Małopolska and Spain.
The connection to Cyprus, however, enjoyed the greatest increase in popularity compared to last year with 48% passengers more travelling to Paphos than in 2016.
Almost all tickets were sold for flights to Barcelona (GRO) (98% seats taken on board aircraft) and to Malaga and Valencia – this year’s new destination, located by the Mediterranean Sea (97% seats taken on board aircraft).
Passengers visiting their families
A survey carried out among passengers revealed that over half of them intended to travel for leisure, while the other half indicated work and visiting their family – mainly in the United Kingdom – as their reason for flying.
British Airways, easyJet, Jet2.com and Ryanair provide the total of 19 connections to the United Kingdom. Such a rich flight offer makes the UK the leader of the most popular destinations from Kraków Airport that are not classified as holiday destinations. In July and August, 250 thousand passengers used the services of those four carriers.
Kraków and Małopolska popular among foreign travellers
The rich offer of flights to the United Kingdom means that the British are among the foreigners who most often choose Kraków as their holiday destination (17% passengers in the summer season). They travel to Kraków directly from such airports as: London Stansted, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Belfast, Leeds, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Birmingham, Bournemouth, or East Midlands.
Thanks to launching a direct flight to Chicago by PLL LOT, US citizens have become the third largest nationality to visit Kraków Airport (right after the Polish and British). The flights to Chicago enjoy great popularity, evidenced by 92% of seats taken on board of the state-of-the-art Dreamliners of PLL LOT.
Connections to Germany – short distance and thirty times the Earth’s circumference
The most flights in the summer season were from Kraków to Germany, mainly thanks to the offers of Lufthansa, AirBerlin and Eurowings. In total, over 1,700 flight operations were carried out between Kraków and our western neighbour, which, after summing up the distance flown by all the planes, gives us 1 million kilometres (i.e. thirty times the circumference of the Earth).
In September, Ryanair added connections to Frankfurt to the summer range of flights from Kraków to Germany. Soon, in the 2017/2018 winter season, Lufthansa will increase the frequency of flights on that route by 7 during the week.
You can reach almost every corner of the world from the capital of Małopolska
Kraków Airport’s offer provides the opportunity to reach the largest hub airports in Europe and travel to the most exotic regions of Asia, Australia or America.
Almost 40% of connection passengers in July were Lufthansa passengers. They changed at hubs in Frankfurt and Munich to travel to such destinations as the United States and various corners of Europe.
Thanks to 14 connections to Amsterdam each week offered by KLM, passengers have the opportunity to reach such places as: Tokyo, Osaka, Taipei, Shanghai or Kuala Lumpur in Asia, Johannesburg in Southern Africa, as well as Sao Paulo or Lima in South America. In the winter season, KLM will increase its flight offer to 21 flights a week, allowing passengers to travel to sunny locations also in winter.
On the other hand, Finnair offers flights to the busiest airport in Finland – in Helsinki – whence Hong-Kong has been the most popular summer destination.
Taking a leave in autumn or winter – 2017/2018 winter season announcement
The winter timetable rolls in on the last Sunday of October. Passengers will choose from 90 connections, including 16 new ones. Travellers will also be able to seek sunshine all year round in: Athens, Barcelona, Lisbon, Marrakesh, Marseilles, Seville, Tel Aviv, Naples. Winter holidays can be prolonged by visiting: Porto, Valencia, Pisa, Trapani and Venice.
The record-breaking 100 connections from Kraków in 2017 will be attained at the beginning of the winter season along with the launch of routes to: Birmingham, Berlin, Göteborg, Glasgow, Malmö, Nuremberg and Prague.
More information: Kraków Airport
Photo © Anna Karahan