In recent years, Poland has seen a steady increase in the total number of passengers in international transport, although – as illustrated in Figure 1 – this is due to air transport, as other modes of transport show relative stability in this regard.
International air passenger transport
The air transport market in Poland.
The Polish air passenger transport market is currently one of the fastest-growing markets in Europe, with an extremely impressive growth dynamic. This is confirmed by statistics from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Civil Aviation Authority. In 2007, airports in Poland handled over 19 million passengers. As Figure 2 illustrates, air passenger traffic has more than tripled over the last 6 years. The number of flights offered in scheduled traffic from Poland is also increasing: from 1,340 departures per week in 2005 to 1,816 in 2007, of which an average of 20% are connections to German cities. Such dynamic development of air transport is primarily due to the relatively high rate of economic growth and the liberalization and opening of the air transport market in 2004, along with the increased activity of low-cost carriers, which became the main engine for the development of the Polish aviation market. The expansion of low-cost carriers has generated new demand and increased the economic accessibility of air services on the Polish market, also changing the structure of this demand in favor of tourist travel and trips related to working abroad, etc. Forecasts for the Polish aviation market are very optimistic. It is predicted that by 2030, the total number of passengers using air transport will exceed 75 million, although it will be difficult to expect such spectacular growth in subsequent years. However, it should be emphasized that stable and sustainable development of air transport is conditioned by the simultaneous development of airport infrastructure in Poland.
Air carriers.
In recent years, in addition to traditional carriers, many new low-cost carriers (LCC) have started operations in Poland, and their share in air transport is systematically growing: in 2005 it was 31.37%, and in the following year it was already 46.2%. The number of passengers carried by “low-cost airlines” reached 6.15 million in 2006, which is almost 100% more than in the previous year and seven times more than in 2004. Low-cost carriers offering flights to Great Britain and Ireland as well as to Scandinavia are showing great activity, where they are becoming a direct competitor to shipowners operating on the Baltic Sea. The first position among air carriers in Poland is invariably held by LOT Polish Airlines. Nevertheless, even though the number of LOT passengers increased by 700,000 last year, its market share decreased by 2 percentage points compared to 2006 and is currently 32%; whereas in 2005, LOT passengers accounted for 44% of the total number of airline passengers. The leading low-cost carrier and the second in the ranking is the Hungarian Wizzair, which has already captured 16% of the market. Next is the Irish Ryanair (13%), which is the undisputed leader in low-cost transport in Europe (Figure 3). In the group of traditional carriers, apart from LOT, the German Lufthansa has an established position, followed by British Airways and Air France, which – despite the expansion of LCCs – have even managed to gain new passengers.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2/2008.