More budget airlines fly to Poland as market soars

Britain's Jet2 and Denmark's Sterling are the newest budget carriers to begin flights to Poland where the air travel market is soaring, Poland's Rzeczpospolita daily reported Wednesday. In October, Jet2 will begin two flights a week to and from Leeds and Newcastle to Krakow, while Denmark's Sterling will link Copenhagen with the historic and scenic Polish city, which has become a hit with foreign tourists.

Budget airlines are flocking to the Polish market which is projected to grow to 63.8 million passengers by 2030 from the 14.3 million total estimated for 2006, according to the report.

Budget carriers operating flights to Poland include Centralwings, Blue1, Easyjet, Germanwings, Jet2, Norwegian, Ryanair, Sterling and Wizzair.

The carriers fly into 11 Polish airports scattered across the country of nearly 40 million citizens. Most have chosen the capital Warsaw and the southern city of Krakow as their ports of call.

Traffic has picked up significantly since Poland's entry into the European Union in 2004, with tens of thousands of Poles using cheap flights to fly in search of work in the UK or Ireland.

Tourist traffic to Poland is also growing with a 6.4 per cent rise to 15.2 million foreign visitors to Poland from 2004 to 2005, according to Economy Ministry figures.
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