Passenger Traffic at Katowice Airport in January 2022
YEAR BEGINS WITH CHARTER TRAFFIC RECORD
The Upper Silesian Aviation Group (GTL SA) – the company managing Katowice Wojciech Korfanty International Airport in Pyrzowice – summarized passenger traffic results for January 2022.
In the first month of 2022, 140 776 passengers – 115 698 more (+461.3%) than in January 2021 – travelled via the Katowice Airport regular and charter network. The result is 48% of total passenger traffic in record-breaking January 2020, when 290 thousand passengers were handled on flights to/from Katowice Airport.
In January 2022, 89 656 travellers – 76 749 more (+594.6%) than last year – flew on regular flights handled by Wizz Air, Ryanair, LOT Polish Airlines and Lufthansa. Last month, the following regular routes were the most popular: Dortmund (13.8 thousand passengers), London-Luton (8.0 thousand), Eindhoven (5.8 thousand), Cologne-Bonn (4.6 thousand), Warsaw (3.9 thousand).
A record-breaking result has been achieved in charter traffic. With 50 330 handled passengers, January 2022 has proved to be the best first month in this segment of traffic in the airport’s history. The result from January 2019 was beaten; back then, 48 393 travellers were handled on charter flights. In comparison with the first month of 2021, there were 38 800 passengers more on charter flights in January 2022 (+336.5%). In January 2022, passengers most often travelled to: Marsa Alam (10.4 thousand passengers), Hurghada (10.2 thousand), Antalya (4.1 thousand), Punta Cana (3.6 thousand), Varadero (2.4 thousand). In January 2022, 1 995 aircraft take-offs and landings took place in Katowice Airport, i.e. 1 081 more (+118.3%) than in January 2021.
“In spite of our concerns regarding the fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, passenger traffic did not collapse in January; it is a good sign for the upcoming months and for the acceleration of the process of traffic recovery. In 2022, we aim to handle between 3.8 and 4 million passengers. The strength of Katowice Airport lies in charter traffic; in this segment of traffic, we keep seeing better load factors in comparison with regular flights. In January 2022, an average of 102 passengers travelled on regular flights to/from Katowice Airport, and 150 on charter flights,” said Artur Tomasik, President of the Board of GTL SA.
Katowice Airport is among the biggest regional airports in Poland. In 2019, record-breaking 4.84 million passengers travelled via its network; 2 million passengers flew on charter flights. The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the biggest crisis in the history of the aviation industry; it slowed down the forecast growth of passenger traffic. In 2020, 1.44 million passengers travelled to/from the airport, and 2.32 million in 2021. Katowice Wojciech Korfanty Airport is the country leader in the area of charter traffic, and the regional leader in the area of cargo traffic.