An international architectural consortium has unveiled designs for an integrated airport and rail link 40 km from Warsaw, scaled down from original plans envisaged in 2018.
The so-called Central Transport Hub, due to be completed in 2032, will initially cater for 34 million passengers a year, under redrawn plans made public by a consortium that consists of 400 architects and is led by Foster + Partners and Buro Happold.
For comparison, Warsaw’s Chopin airport handled around 18.5 million passengers in 2023.
"Today we have taken another real step on the way to the creation of a central airport... the design work is nearing completion, we are clearly accelerating," Infrastructure Minister Dariusz Klimczak said on Monday.
"In the first phase of development, the airport will be able to handle up to approximately 11,000 passengers per hour,” he added.
The airport, on which work is to begin in 2026, foresees an initial 40 check-in desks, with space reserved for increasing the number to 170.
The new facility, in the town of Baranów, 40 km west of Warsaw, “will be the most modern in Central Europe,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk when he recently announced that the project – which was initiated by the previous government – would go ahead, albeit in a scaled down form.
For comparison, Warsaw’s Chopin airport handled around 18.5 million passengers in 2023.
"Today we have taken another real step on the way to the creation of a central airport... the design work is nearing completion, we are clearly accelerating," Infrastructure Minister Dariusz Klimczak said on Monday.
"In the first phase of development, the airport will be able to handle up to approximately 11,000 passengers per hour,” he added.
The airport, on which work is to begin in 2026, foresees an initial 40 check-in desks, with space reserved for increasing the number to 170.
The new facility, in the town of Baranów, 40 km west of Warsaw, “will be the most modern in Central Europe,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk when he recently announced that the project – which was initiated by the previous government – would go ahead, albeit in a scaled down form.
Plans under the previous administration envisaging an airport catering for 40 million passengers had been decried as gigantism by detractors. High-speed rail links to several main cities spanning out from a major intersection in Baranów were the main casualty of the new project.
While some of the plots of land required for the project have been purchased already, much of that work still lies ahead of the airport planners, who hope to get planning permission by the end of the year.
Property owners unwilling to be removed from their houses and farms have staged protests, which are likely to continue.
The facility will cost just over 130 billion zlotys (€30 billion), according to the Central Transport Hub company, set up under the auspices of the Infrastructure Ministry for the project.
While some of the plots of land required for the project have been purchased already, much of that work still lies ahead of the airport planners, who hope to get planning permission by the end of the year.
Property owners unwilling to be removed from their houses and farms have staged protests, which are likely to continue.
The facility will cost just over 130 billion zlotys (€30 billion), according to the Central Transport Hub company, set up under the auspices of the Infrastructure Ministry for the project.
