Katowice Airport will conclude 2023 with record-breaking 5.5 million handled passengers. The forecast for 2024 estimates that over 6 million travellers will travel to/from Katowice Airport.
On 29 October 2023 (Sunday), the winter season will commence for the aviation industry; it will conclude on the last Saturday of March 2024. The network of flights at Katowice Airport during the “Winter 2023/2024” season covers 67 regular and charter routes to 35 countries.
38 regular destinations, 4 new routes
As part of regular traffic, handled at Katowice Airport by Wizz Air, Ryanair, Lufthansa and LOT Polish Airlines, 38 routes, including 4 new ones, will be available during the “Winter 2023/2024” season. All new destinations are part of Wizz Air’s offer. On 17 October 2023, flights to Alicante in Spain commenced at Katowice Airport. The route is handled three times a week: on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. A day later, on 18 October, flights to Copenhagen, Denmark, commenced. The destination is handled on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. In December 2023 Wizz Air plans to handle the first flights from Katowice Airport to Aqaba (Jordan) and Brussels-Charleroi (Belgium). Aqaba will launch on 13 December 2023 (Wednesday). The route will be handled twice a week: on Wednesdays and Sundays; from 1 April to 6 May 2024, the destination will be available on Mondays and Fridays. The day after the first flight to Jordan, i.e. on 14 December 2023 (Thursday), Wizz Air will launch flights connecting Katowice Airport and Brussels-Charleroi, Belgium. The route will be handled twice a week: on Thursdays and Sundays. Beginning in April 2024, flights to Belgium will be available on Wednesdays and Sundays.
The remaining 34 regular routes are well known and popular among passengers. Most destinations, a total of 27 (including the new ones mentioned above), are served by Wizz Air. Five Wizz Air connections will link Katowice Airport with Spain, namely: Alicante, Barcelona, Fuerteventura, Malaga and Tenerife. Four routes will allow passengers to travel to the United Kingdom, i.e. Bristol, Leeds-Bradford, Liverpool and London-Luton. The carrier offers three routes to Italy: Catania, Naples, Rome-Ciampino, and two to Norway: Bergen and Oslo-Torp. During the “Winter 2023/2024” season, Wizz Air will fly from Katowice Airport to Brussels-Charleroi (Belgium), Larnaca (Cyprus), Copenhagen (Denmark), Athens (Greece), Kutaisi (Georgia), Eindhoven (Netherlands), Reykjavik (Iceland), Tel Aviv (Israel), Aqaba (Jordan), Malta, Dortmund (Germany), Madeira (Portugal), and to the capital of the United Arab Emirates: Abu Dhabi.
The second carrier with a base at Katowice Airport – Ryanair from Ireland – will offer nine destinations at Katowice Airport during “Winter 2023/2024”: three routes to Italy – Catania, Forli and Milan-Bergamo – and flights to Paphos (Cyprus), Athens (Greece), Dublin (Ireland), Dortmund (Germany), Oslo-Gardermoen (Norway) and London-Stansted (United Kingdom). One route will be handled by both LOT Polish Airlines and Air Dolomiti. The flag carrier of Poland will handle domestic flights between Katowice Airport and Warsaw. Air Dolomiti aircraft will offer – on behalf of Lufthansa – flights connecting Katowice and the German airport in Frankfurt.
Best Winter network of charter flights in airport’s history
As the biggest airport in the area of charter flights in Poland, Katowice Airport offers a rich network of flights handled for travel agencies during the “Winter 2023/2024” season; it covers 29 routes to 20 countries, and includes seven new positions, i.e. Aqaba (Jordan), Muscat (Oman), Colombo (Sri Lanca), Margarita (Venezuela), Phu Quoc (Vietnam), Boa Vista (Cape Verde) and Ras al-Khaimah (United Arab Emirates). What sets Katowice Airport apart from other Polish regional airports is its wide range of direct long-haul charter flights. One may travel from Katowice Airport without stopovers to the Dominican Republic (Puerto Plata), Cuba (Varadero), Mexico (Cancun), Thailand (Bangkok, Phuket), Venezuela (Magarita) and Vietnam (Phu Quoc). The routes mentioned above will be handled with LOT Polish Airlines’ Boeing 787-8 “Dreamliner” or Plus Ultra’s Airbus A330-200 aircraft. As part of the “Winter 2023/2024” schedule, four charter routes will be available to Egypt (Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Sharm El-Sheikh and Taba) and to the Spanish Canary Islands (Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Tenerife). Furthermore, it will be possible to fly from Katowice Airport during winter to Oman (Salalah, Muscat), United Arab Emirates (Ras al-Khaimah, Dubai), and – via single flights – to Gambia (Banjul), Jordan (Aqaba), Kenya (Mombasa), Morocco (Agadir), Portugal (Madeira), Sri Lanca (Colombo), Zanzibar, Tunisia (Djerba), Turkey (Antalya) and Cape Verde (Boa Vista).
“We are expecting the upcoming winter season to be the best in the airport’s history. We forecast that – from November to March – over 1.5 million passengers will travel via the Katowice Airport network of flights. Achieving such a good result will be possible thanks to Wizz Air’s new routes from Katowice Airport to Aqaba, Alicante, Brussels-Charleroi and Copenhagen, as well as an increase in frequency of other popular southern regular routes, such as Naples, Athens, Malta, Barcelona, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Madeira, Abu Dhabi. Such a result will also be possible thanks to the richest winter network of charter flights in the airport’s history. Thus far, 50 thousand passengers were handled monthly on charter flights during the winter season at Katowice Airport. We forecast that during this winter season, this number will double to approx. 90 thousand charter passengers monthly,” said Artur Tomasik, the President of the Board of the Upper Silesian Aviation Group (GTL SA).
2023 at Katowice Airport is characterised by numerous records. The best daily result in the history of the airport was noted; on 16 July 2023, 29,426 passengers were handled. Moreover, August 2023 was the best month in the history of Katowice Airport; 776 thousand passengers were handled.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
