Warsaw Chopin Airport

IATA: WAW, ICAO: EPWA

**Warsaw Chopin Airport** (Polish: *Lotnisko Chopina w Warszawie*, Polish pronunciation: [lɔtˈɲiskɔ ʂɔpɛna]) (IATA: **WAW**, ICAO: **EPWA**) is an international airport located in the Włochy district of Warsaw, Poland. It is Poland's busiest airport with 18.9 million passengers in 2019, thus handling approximately 40% of the country's total air passenger traffic. The airport is a hub for Travel Service.

Founded in 1934, the airport was previously known as **Warsaw-Okecie Airport** (*Port lotniczy Warszawa-Okęcie*) and bore the name of its Okęcie neighborhood throughout its history. It was renamed in honour of Polish composer and former Warsaw resident Frédéric Chopin in 2001. Despite the official change, "Okecie" *(*"Lotnisko Okęcie"*)* remains in popular and industry use, including air traffic and aerodrome references.

## Infrastructure

An underground railway station connected from the airport to Warsaw's suburban rail system was opened in June 2012 in time for the Euro 2012 football championships, and on 25 November 2013, the airport announced accommodating – for the first time in history – its 10 millionth passenger in a single year. A new and modern terminal was completed in 2015.

### Runways

The airport has two intersecting runways, whose configuration and available taxiways under current rules permit 34 passenger operations (takeoffs or landings) per hour.

### Terminals

In 2010, the designation of terminals had changed and the entire former Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 complex is now designated as *Terminal A* divided into five check-in areas (A, B, C, D, E) in two main halls. The complex contains 116 check-in desks. There are 45 passenger gates, 27 of which are equipped with jetways.

#### South hall

The south hall contains the check-in areas A and B (former *Terminal 1*) was built in 1992 with a capacity for 3.5 million passengers per year to replace the aging complex from the communist era. Initially, it handled all the traffic. Since 2007, the T2, a newly built terminal adjacent to T1, has been gradually taking over the major part of the traffic. September 13, 2012 saw the beginning of reconstruction of the south hall. On 23 May 2015 the redesigned, reconstructed south hall was fully integrated into the 'Terminal A' complex. Before its refurbishment the south hall was very recognizable by Polish passengers for its very characteristically dark red colour of many construction elements, including the roof that covered the departure hall, pillars, frames of doors and windows and other. In Polish it was called "buraczkowy", which simply means in the colour of beets in English.

#### North hall

This new terminal (formerly known as *Terminal 2*), featuring the check-in areas C, D and E, became fully operational on 12 March 2008, two years after the originally planned opening date. The arrivals area was in operation from mid-2007 but problems with safety certification and disagreements between the airport and the construction firm delayed full operation. The new terminal is considerably larger than the older Terminal 1 and has taken over departures for all Star Alliance airlines and a few other carriers. In August 2014 Chopin Airport as one of the first European airports offered in Terminal A free unlimited Internet access to all its passengers and visitors.

## Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights to and from Warsaw–Chopin:

***Seasonal Charter:*** Bodrum, Bourgas, Corfu, Palma De Mallorca, Malaga, Heraklion, Lamezia-Terme, Rhodes, Zakynthos