LONDON – Ryanair has announced its ambitious plan to strengthen its presence in Poland with new investments worth US$ 800million in Poland’s second-largest city Kraków.
Ryanair’s ambitious plan further includes 10 new routes to and from Kraków along with the existing 73 routes with the aim to offer Polish hospitality to pan-European customers this summer season.
A Long Relationship Between Ryanair & Poland…
Since its maiden operations in Poland in 2005, Ryanair has always been contributing to the country’s civil aviation by capturing a substantial market share in polish markets.
This has made Ryanair operate from 12 different Polish cities making almost half of them their hubs.
With the new announcement of extensive investment at Kraków, Ryanair will be in a position to operate more than 260 flight schedules per week over the upcoming busy summer season, which makes it more than 40 routes as compared to those of 2019 before the outbreak of the pandemic, stated Michał Kaczmarczyk, CEO of Buzz, the Polish subsidiary of Ryanair.
As the carrier is bound to expand its operations from Kraków over much anticipated busy summer season post-pandemic, the carrier has decided to connect the city of Kraków with the most scenic and popular European destinations like Corfu, Crete, Santorini, and Zadar along with ongoing routes to major cities like London, Milan, and Paris.
As reported by the local daily newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, the new destinations of Ryanair from Kraków include Agadir, Ancona, Berlin, Budapest, Lille, Newcastle, Riga, Stockholm, Turin, and Olsztyn-Mazrui.
New Hope for Kraków…
Kraków, the second-largest city and epicenter of cultural and historic importance that dates to the seventh century has immense potential to make its mark in the European civil aviation paradigm.
In recent days, the economic, academic, artistic, and architectural city of Kraków has made its mark in attracting many tourists from around the world.
The new Ryanair investment will take the city of Kraków into new dimensions, as it is expected to bring more than 400 direct jobs for pilots, flight crews, and ground staff along with 3500 indirect employment opportunities, reports Rzeczpospolita, the daily newspaper in Poland.
Speaking to TVP3, the polish media house on this announcement, Mr. Kaczmarzyk said, “Kraków is an important strategic airport for the airline as it seeks to bounce back from the pandemic.”
“It’s our biggest base in Poland, and alongside Budapest, Ryanair’s biggest airport in this part of Europe.”
With the new addition of routes and strengthening its existence at Kraków, Ryanair is expected to serve more than 4.5 million passengers with the busy summer season ahead of the industry.
The new base at Kraków will be equipped with Ryanair’s new Boeing 737-8200 aircraft, which were delivered to the carrier in summer 2021.
The new “Gamechanger” aircraft are environmentally sustainable with 16% lower Co2 emissions and 40% noise reduction.
The aircraft also adds 4% more seats than its original configuration, thus boosting the flight load factor.
With the latest investment by Ryanair at Kraków, Radosław Włoszek expressed his emotions by saying “After the difficult time of the pandemic, passengers are all the more willing to travel by Ryanair on holiday to warm and sunny cities in Europe,” he said.
“We also invite everyone to Kraków and Małopolska, as spring is an ideal time for discovering the city’s charms and visiting our region.”
Mr. Włoszek also stated that he is delighted with the abundance of investment by the Ryanair and further concluded that, “Passenger traffic is growing week by week at Kraków Airport, he added, proving that “the fascination and joy of air travel have not ended.”
In-all, this is a big step forward for Ryanair and will no doubt see themselves solidifying their position in Poland.
