Modlin is in talks with long haul and short haul operators about taking flight slots in 2025, the acting CEO said, announcing a likely drop of over 10% in 2024 passenger number forecasts.
Acting CEO Tomasz Szymczak promised some significant investments for next year, during a PAP interview, which he said will "raise the status of the airport to a category III ILS," a grade which Warsaw's Chopin Airport gained in 2018.
“We have signed a contract with Polish Air Traffic Control for a remote tower at Modlin, which will allow for traffic to be controlled from their Warsaw airport HQ.”
This investment, according to Szymczak, will lessen the chances of cancellations due to poor weather, a major bugbear of Ryanair, along with the size of the airport, which he said had space for too few planes.
In December 2023, Ryanair’s CEO Michael O'Leary announced the cancellation of a number of flights out of Modlin, and in no uncertain terms stated in a press release that there will be “no new flights out of Modlin” in the near future.
“The mismanagement of Modlin Airport has forced us to cut routes, the number of aircraft based and flight frequencies, while other airports such as Kraków, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Poznan and Chopin are expanding this summer,” O'Leary said at the time.
Modlin Airport, which is around 40 km from Warsaw, saw passenger numbers recovering after the pandemic to 3.4 million in 2023. This year since it is so dependent on Ryanair, that’s likely to drop to 3 million according to Szymczak, who promised that expansion plans will begin in 2025.
These plans announced by PM Donald Tusk in June, are part of the new airport strategy for Warsaw.
The aim is to increase capacity at existing airports Modlin, city-center Chopin and more distant Radom before the new larger Central Transport Hub airport 40 km to the west of the capital comes online sometime in the 2030s.
In Modlin’s case the €120 million expansion will consist of “the building of 4 new plane docks and repairs and modernization” which will include "the installation of air conditioning” for the budget airport, Szymczak said.
