Zielona Góra Airport


Zielona Góra Airport is a regional airport located within the greater Zielona Góra agglomeration in western Poland. It lies from Sulechów, or northeast of the Zielona Góra city centre.
The airport is situated in the village of Kramsko, near the town of Babimost, west of Poznań, east from the German border, and from the center of Berlin. The airport's catchment area consists of 3 million inhabitants of the Lubusz Land and western Greater Poland.
The airport is the 14th busiest in Poland, or last among currently functioning with scheduled traffic. It has recently been taken over from the Polish Army by the regional authorities, but it is run by the state enterprise Porty Lotnicze, the operator of Warsaw's airport. There is a dispute, whether a separate company created by the regional authorities should take over the management of the airport, as the PPL is managing it without any commercial success.

History

The airport is a former military base. Its construction started in 1954. Airport began its service on 10.10.1957. A MiG-15 is parked adjacent to the terminal building, reflecting the former airport’s military origins.
First passenger terminal was opened in 1977, but even before some passenger flights already operated from the airport. One of such first passenger flights took place in 1961, carrying Jurij Gagarin on his visit to Zielona Góra. It has a record of serving domestic traffic to and from Warsaw and Gdańsk since 1977. First flights were served 2 times weekly to Warsaw, Gdańsk route was also operated in the 1970-ties. The airport operated passenger traffic between Warsaw and Zielona Góra until September 2004, when, after 33 years of service, the state-owned Polish Airlines LOT discontinued the route, following ownership changes at the airport: The army stopped using it as its military base and dismantled some of its equipment.
After the army left the airport in 2004, the property was rented to the regional authorities in 2005, so that the airport new owner could start developing the airport. Massive shifts in the Polish airline market caused financial problems for the former monopolist state-owned carrier LOT, resulting in suspension of the Warsaw service, because LOT could not find suitable mid-sized aircraft for this route.
Recently this has changed, and since the end of 2005, two daily flights to Warsaw were operated by Jet Air for LOT, later reduced to one. As of 2008 Jet Air was the second airline serving the airport, without any ties to LOT. The local government subsidized these flights so that they may take place at all.
In the following years, the airport served multiple destinations in domestic traffic: new routes to Gdańsk and Kraków were opened, an international connection to Dresden was opened in summer 2009, but all these destinations were discontinued. The flights to Warsaw operated with intermediate stops in Poznań or Bydgoszcz. List of former destinations include: Kraków, Gdańsk, Poznań, Bydgoszcz, Dresden. There is no international traffic at the airport, except for charter services to southern Europe. Such charter flights took place in September and October 2015. In summer season 2015 the airlines flying to and from the airport served 8 charter routes as well as regular flights. New charter operations were performed by Enter Air, Small Planet Airlines, SUNExpres. Destinations served in 2015 included: Antalya ; Maiorka and Tenerife ; Korfu, Rodos, Kos ; Agadir ; Dubrovnik. In 2016 the airport served occasional charter flight to Las Palmas and to Lviv in Ukraine.
The idea of attracting international traffic, in the form of cargo flights, for the region of western Wielkopolska and Lubusz Land has resulted in a signed agreement between the local government and the management, but nothing concrete came of that yet.
In January 2017, it has been announced that the airports only scheduled route to Warsaw Chopin Airport will be handed over from SprintAir to LOT Polish Airlines.
As of 2020 the airport only sees a regular service to Warsaw Chopin Airport operated by LOT Polish Airlines and a seasonal service to Antalya Airport operated by Onur Air however, Onur Air does not advertise or sell tickets for the flight.

Airport infrastructure

Runway

Zielona Góra Airport has a single asphalt-concrete runway in the direction of 06/24. The runway is 2,500 m long, 60 meters wide and it is equipped with a modern ILS CAT I allowing aircraft to land in foggy weather. Airport elevation is 59.0 m. The runway has two exit taxiways leading to two parking aprons were up to 10 middle-sized aircraft can be parked. The airport also has an apron used in winter for the de-icing of aircraft. Fuel available: Avgas 100 LL, Jet A1, fuel capacities: Avgas 100 LL - 7.500 l, Jet-A 1 - 18.000 l, fire safety protection: Category VI. Light navigation of the runway: Direction 24 - standard 900 m high-intensity approach lighting system with centerline sequenced flashers. Visual system: 4-light PAPI on left on both directions. New light navigation of the runway - Cat. 1. NDB: 390 kHz „BBM”, DVOR/DME ZLG : 110,650 MHz

Passenger terminals

Zielona Gora Airport has two passenger terminals, of which only Terminal T2 is fully functional and has a large capacity. The airport possesses a passenger terminal T1 of a modest capacity of 150,000 passengers yearly. This is a medium-sized passenger terminal T1 used for departures. Terminal T1 was built in 1977 and is currently being used for departures. In 2015, a new passenger terminal was constructed, increasing the airport capacity to serve passenger traffic. Terminal T2 is used for arrivals and charter services. There is no check-in or any other airport services in Terminal T2. The old terminal, called Terminal T1, has 2 check-in desks, basic luggage transport, and sorting facility and a medium-sized departure area with 1 or 2 gates. However, after the completion of the new arrival area, the maximum capacity of the airport is estimated at 0,3 million passengers per year.
The post-military airport ranks second in Poland in terms of its infrastructure surface, such as taxiways and aprons, and has a good quality concrete runway. It is specified as PCN 45/R/B/W/T. The airport can handle up to 10 Boeing 737s on its taxiways and aprons. The main apron has 10 positions, including 10 positions for class B 737. There is also a smaller apron in front of the main terminal building. In total there are 6 separate aeroplane parking spots. In September and October 2015 the airport took over the charter operations from Poznan- Lawica airport that was undergoing runway renovation at that time. To serve increased passenger traffic, new parking lots were temporarily arranged, and a new terminal was opened for passenger traffic.

Cargo terminals

There is a small cargo terminal located next to the passenger terminal T1. The airport served cargo flights in the past, there is no data on current cargo operations from the airport. There are plans to increase cargo operations in the future.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines serve regular scheduled and charter services to and from Zielona Góra:
The nearest larger international airport is Poznań–Ławica Airport approx. 95 km to the east.

Ground transportation

Bus

Bus service operates between the city of Zielona Góra and the Airport and its service is adjusted to flights' departure and arrival time. Departure from Main Bus Station and Airport, including few stops on route in the city. There is also a minibus service to Gorzów Wielkopolski that needs to be booked in advance. One can reach Airport by other bus operators with a stop in Nowe Kramsko village, some 1,5 km from the airport, that is served by local bus companies quite frequently.

Road

Land connections to Poznań use the newly opened motorway, as well as the newly renovated railway line.

Rail

There exists a railroad spur next to the terminal that can be used for passenger service. Alternatively, it has been proposed that a train station be put on the well-frequented electrified rail line connecting Zielona Góra with Poznań, that passes only from the terminal. The trip to Poznań by train would then take less than an hour.
There is an ongoing debate, whether the airport should be connected to a regional rail system by constructing a 2-km rail line that would connect the existing airport branch rail line with the passenger terminal. Local authorities are against such plans. The airport has an unused rail station that is located at the eastern side of the runway. There is a 2 km distance between the exiting but disused rail station and the terminals of the airport. In many similar airports the rail connections to the airports are already operated or will soon be opened for passenger traffic.

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