A major Polish airport project and transportation hub will serve as a direct competitor to foreign airports and is vital for the development of LOT Polish Airlines, declared the government plenipotentiary for the project, Marcin Horała.
Known as the Central Port of Communication (CPK), Horala says that the project is being criticized due to the fact that many foreign initiatives view it as a direct competitor.
“These competitors have, as we can see, influence in Poland,” stated Horała. He said that he believes that the project is also cost-effective.
The minister emphasized the importance of the CPK in Polish Airlines LOT’s development, as the airline should have a host airport from which it can develop additional flight connections without a natural limit on the airport’s capacity.
Horała also addressed the question of whether the CPK will also serve as competition for communication networks of partner states in the Intermarium region, such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, but he said that will depend on the development model of the flight industry.
“Will it be a hub and spoke model, so a large hub in which traffic is concentrated, or a network of direct point-to-point connections? Everything points to it being the former,” he said, emphasizing that such a hub currently does not exist in the Intermarium and Poland is the only logical place to build it.
The plenipotentiary explained that Poland is the largest country in the region, with the strongest economy and largest population which generates most of the air traffic.
He underlined that it is the traffic to and from Poland and the tens of millions of passengers passing through the country that will drive the airport into existence and attract additional transfer traffic.
Mikołaj Wild, the current acting head of the CPK, is looking for foreign companies that want to cooperate on the investment. There are also open positions for a strategic advisor for the CPK and a consultant for the Warsaw Chopin airport.
The management of the CPK project has already met with the representatives of the Singapore Changi Airport and the Singaporeans have expressed interest in participating in the project.
The Polish CPK project is ambitious
The Central Communication Port (CPK), also known as Solidarity Transport Hub, could serve up to 45 million passengers a year. Polish and regional passengers could have to change flights abroad much less often and would have access to better connections, including additional flights from LOT Polish Airlines.
The airport is meant to eventually replace the Warsaw Chopin Airport, which is currently at full capacity.
The planned transportation hub is meant to occupy an area of 3,000 hectares near Baranów, which is 37 kilometers west of Warsaw.
Not only will the project feature a major airport, which is expected to be finished by 2027, but also includes railway investments meant to better connect the entire country by providing speedy connections to Warsaw and other major cities. In total, 1,600 kilometers of new routes are meant to be constructed, starting with a rail line between Warsaw and Łódź.
