Polish airports expect investments of over Euro 1.8bn by 2013

Optimistic forecasts for the aviation sector and Poland’s co-hosting of the 2012 European Championships are the two driving forces behind launching at Polish airports investment projects whose value will top PLN 7bn (€1.8bn) by 2013. Regional airports will continue to post higher growth rates than the Warsaw airport. In a few years’ time the position of regional ports will further strengthen thanks to new airports, whose construction will gobble up nearly one-third of the investment outlays. The largest projects are in the pipeline at Euro 2012 venues.

Optimistic forecasts for the aviation sector and Poland’s co-hosting of the 2012 European Championships are the two driving forces behind launching at Polish airports investment projects whose value will top PLN 7bn (€1.8bn) by 2013. Regional airports will continue to post higher growth rates than the Warsaw airport. In a few years’ time the position of regional ports will further strengthen thanks to new airports, whose construction will gobble up nearly one-third of the investment outlays. The largest projects are in the pipeline at Euro 2012 venues.

During the next six years, investment into airport construction and modernisation in Poland will reach an unprecedented level. In its recent report titled “Airport construction in Poland 2007 – Development forecasts for 2008-2013”, analytical and consulting company PMR estimates that by 2013 the value of investment projects at Polish airports will exceed PLN 7bn (€1.8bn), of which nearly one-third will be poured into construction of new regional airports.

2007 will be a subsequent year to see record-high results of airports and airlines in Poland, with more than 19m passengers carried. An analysis of the increase in passenger numbers shows that the fastest growth rates are recorded by leading regional airports – Wroclaw, Gdansk, Krakow and Katowice, which are the main drivers for such impressive performance of the Polish aviation sector.

It needs to be noted that 2007 will be the first year when less than a half of all airport passengers in Poland fly from the Warsaw-Okecie airport. The reasons are two-fold: extremely rapid development of low cost carriers at regional airports and insufficient capacity of Okecie; construction of the second terminal, which could help solve the problem, has been dragging on for several years now. In the coming years, the regional airports will continue to outperform Okecie in terms of passenger numbers, ultimately handling nearly two-thirds of all passenger traffic in 2020.

Civil aviation in Poland will keep developing rapidly. A strong stimulus for the growth are the prospects of launching less costly flights to and from the United States, where some 10m people of Polish origin live. Furthermore, the aviation authorities of Poland and Ukraine are in talks on liberalisation of the air transport agreement between these countries.

Fast growth of the aviation industry in Poland may be threatened by the probable inclusion of EU airlines in the carbon dioxide emissions trading scheme, harmonization of airport charges by the European Commission, and shortage of pilots.

A prerequisite to further strong growth of the Polish air transport is development of airport infrastructure and higher efficiency of air space use. Among the existing airports, the largest investment projects are planned in Krakow, Katowice, Gdansk, Warsaw and Wroclaw. As regards new airports, Modlin, Lublin and Bialystok are nearly 100% certain to have airports constructed. Slightly smaller regional ports may also be built near Opole and Koszalin. All these projects are very likely to by co-financed by the EU, wheras obtaining EU subsidies for the construction of airport in Obice near Kielce is rather doubtful. Creation of airports is also planned by Radom, Sochaczew, Minsk Mazowiecki and Gdynia. However, these projects would have to be supported by private investors.

Additionally, several local tourist and business airports, e.g. in Szczecin, Gorzow Wielkopolski, Torun, Grudziadz, Olsztyn, Suwalki, Katowice, Czestochowa, Nowy Targ and Stary Sacz, are to be invested in.

The value of the investment projects discussed in the report is estimated by PMR at nearly PLN 7.8bn (€2bn). “However, we expect that some of the planned projects, especially in the mazowieckie region, will not be completed by 2013, thus the actual investment outlays will be about 10% lower, amounting to PLN 7bn, with the greatest intensification of the investment activity in 2011-2012. Nearly one-third of that amount will be invested into all kinds of airport roads, and more than one-fourth will be spent on construction works on airport terminals,” estimates Bartlomiej Sosna, author of the report.

The third largest group of investment projects will involve road and railway connections between airports and city centres, with the biggest projects being planned for Krakow, Wroclaw, Tri-City, and Warsaw. “Given the fact that Poland will be co-hosting Euro 2012, we do not expect the projects to exceed our forecasts to any major extent. However, the project costs may increase due to the steadily rising prices of construction services”, adds Bartlomiej Sosna.