Polish Airports State Enterprise (PPL), the operator of the newly reopened Radom Airport, located 110 kilometres from Poland’s capital of Warsaw, has said it has contacted Air Serbia, Croatia Airlines and Air Montenegro among thirty other carriers over the potential introduction of flights. Air Serbia will re-enter the Polish market next Sunday by introducing services between Belgrade and Krakow, while Air Montenegro maintains summer charters to Poland. On the other hand, Croatia Airlines does not serve the Polish market. LOT Polish Airlines operates to Belgrade, Zagreb and Podgorica, as well as Dubrovnik and Split from Warsaw’s main Chopin Airport.
Commenting on the talks, Marcin Horala, Poland’s Secretary of State at the Ministry for Development Funds and Regional Policy, said, “Each new carrier [at Radom] is being offered a package of promotional and marketing activities. The scope of these activities depends on the specific carrier and route it plans to launch". Other airlines the PPL has started negotiating with include Wizz Air, Ryanair, easyJet, Iberia Express, Aegean Airlines, Finnair, carriers from Turkey, as well as several airlines from the Gulf including Air Arabia, Salam Air and Jazeera Airways.
Radom reopened late last month to become Poland’s fifteenth operational airport. Although it has been in use since the 1920s, when it served as a military base, the airport was repurposed for commercial use and in 2015 welcomed its first airBaltic and Czech Airlines flights, from Riga and Prague respectively. However, due to poor demand, both routes were discontinued shortly after. In 2018, Radom Airport declared bankruptcy and was acquired by Poland’s state-owned airport operator that decided to shut it down, demolish its terminal and build a new one. It re-marketed the airport as Warsaw Radom with the aim to alleviate congestion at Warsaw Chopin and serve as a back-up to the New Central Polish Airport, a proposed megaproject that plans to become the Polish capital’s main airport in 2027.
Air Serbia, which previously served Warsaw but discontinued the route in 2016, will commence four weekly flights to Krakow on June 4. Air Montenegro will expand its operations in Poland in cooperation with the Polish tour operator Rego-Bis. The Montenegrin carrier will continue to maintain a one weekly regular charter service between Podgorica and Katowice, which was launched last year and will be restored next Thursday, but will also introduce regular one weekly charter flights to Rzeszow from June 15.
OU could launch flights and offer connections from OSI, BWK, OMO, RJK...
ReplyDeleteThey could do that to Warsaw WAW too but they don't.
Deletemaybe this airport will be much cheaper so it would be affordable to operate. and they can do it with the Dash 8.
DeleteSame with Serbia, they dont serve Warsaw but could do with their ATR. All assuming that this airport is much cheaper than Warsaw-Chopin
The only airline Radom could work for is Air Montenegro in my opinion as they are unable to sell connecting tickets and have no cooperation with other airlines.
ReplyDeleteAnd only as charter.
DeleteDid OU fly to Warsaw once upon a time?
ReplyDeleteYes it did
DeleteOnce upon a time, before OU was taken over by criminals and Uhljebs, it flew not only to Warsaw, but to Manchester, Stockholm, Moscow, Berlin, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart, Madrid, Malta, Istanbul, Budapest, Tirana.... and had already arranged and published services to New York, Chicago and Toronto, and development plans for company to grow wider. Then, Misetic turned the company to Cartel feeder, for his personal benefits, in order to become member of Star Alliance Board of Directors
DeleteIt was Kucko that destroyed OU, not Misetic!
Delete@pozdrav did you hear the news about the italians? they will be bought and controlled Lufthansa outright. 41% stake with option to buy controlling stake later. Maybe it will make you feel better that even rich Italy is failing and filling pocket to germany.
Deleteits really a shame about Croatia Airlines we could have had two large and growing Yug Airlines.
@11.43
DeleteKucko was Misetic puppet. And was only executing his orders. Kucko might have formally been in charge of OU for the continuation of its destruction, but the idea of destruction and beggining of destruction and everything that followed until today, when Jasmin, another puppet, is very succesfully continuing with destruction, has only one name signed under : Ivan Misetic
@11.48
No, situation in Italy will not make me feel better, because it's different. Alitalia /ITA will be filling pockets to Germans, no doubt, but in return for some investment. In Croatia, they have ZERO investment and zero ownership, yet not only they are fed for peanuts and their pockets filled, but such a logic, in combination with ordinary criminal acts, and mentality whose World ends in Graz /Frankfurt is preventing OU from becoming, as you correctly said, large and growing airline, which for sure will not be the case in Italy.
Lufthansa had been trying to get into Italy for decades which they successfully resisted. Today they're buying ITA as merely a shell of what Alitalia used to be and not because they got Italy in their pocket but because nobody else wants to buy it. And understandably so, in the last few years with Alitalia going bust the Italian market is flourishing with low cost airlines expanding and also foreign airlines (take even JU as example with 9 destinations in Italy), plus a number of startup airlines are launching in the country.
DeleteNow to put into comparison to OU when it bent over to lufty it was in a better state than today and had an important role in developing the air connectivity to the entire country, which was sacrificed to feed LH routes
+10000000
DeleteAnyone here cares to explain what the above persistently annoying person means by using word ‘Uhljebs’ when posting in English! Does not make any sense for those of us following from abroad and not speaking the language. Thanks!
DeleteThe internet is full of descriptions what the word uhljeb means .
DeleteAnyone interested in Croatia in the slightest should know it .
Because it's untranslatable 😂 Roughly, it's a person that has a state job obtained through the party and does little to no actual work.
DeleteHahahahahahahaha, another pathetic try of Kradeze Party bot @17.27. Everyone believes here you are from "abroad" and don't know what Uhljeb is, using it as an excuse to pretend there are plenty of you who dislike what I write. But it's only you, I read you as an open book, no one else would write "persistently annoying person" only because I criticize crime and incompetence in your beloved tiny humiliated feeder OU 😃
DeleteDoes the airport have a rail link to Warsaw? It's really far away
ReplyDeleteNo, it doesn't. You can reach the airport by bus or by car. Alternatively you can take teain to Radom and takeva local bus or taxi to the airport.
DeleteThanks for the info. Any idea how long it takes by bus or by train to Radom?
DeleteCar and bus approx. 1.5 h by direct service to the airport. Train just over 1h (fast train) or 2h by stopping one. Then you need to take a local bus or a taxi.
DeleteThat's not bad. Belgrade to Osijek is 2 hours and 20 minutes, Belgrade to Timisoara is 2 hours and 30 minutes. If people from Romanian Banat and from Slavonija use Belgrade, then I don't see why people from Warsaw wouldn't use Radom if pricing is good.
DeleteBut you need to add cost of transportation and car park if you going by car. In addition it adds extra hour to your journey especially if you cross borders.
DeleteI will be off to Rome from Radom next weekend, but I am doing it for curiosity as I would prefer to fly from Chopin airport even if I have to take a connecting flight.
From Timisoara and Osijek you have minibuses that can take you and fares are really not expensive. Then again both markets lack serious connectivity so BEG is their choice for obvious reasons.
DeleteThat is why I said that Radom flights will have to have a very well thought out ad campaign. I am sure there are people outside of Warsaw that would gravitate towards this market. JU could be attractive especially to those heading to Albania, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus and soo on.
I agree if you have no other airport in vicinity.
DeleteMany cost sensitive passanger will fly from Modlin.
Radom could work with some charters and some LCC.
Or if you are an airlines like JU which can't return to WAW as there are no slots available. Since Radom is offering them support then they could try it out with the ATR. After all the city is home to some 200.000 people. Then there are those who would naturally gravitate towards the airport.
DeleteThey could indeed. Butvthere is also Miglin which is closer to Warsaw and much better connected by public transport.
DeleteEither way I'd rather JU launch Wroclaw before Radom or Modlin.
DeleteOr Gdańsk
DeleteI fear GDN might be too big for the A319. If they had a regional jet then it would be perfect. WRO could be operated by the ATR.
DeleteHelps that KRK is doing better and better for them. That said, the A319 was upgraded due to some sport event in Krakow. However it's good that they decided to fly instead of taking the bus.
That's a good sign. Hope JU will upgrade KRK to daily.
DeleteWMI is located to the north and RDO is located to the south of Warsaw. So to some degree they serve different markets. A lot of clients at WMI comes from northern Mazovia and irrespective of everything else they prefer to use WMI than WAW, which is located basically in the center of Warsaw.
DeleteI am living in central Warsaw and according to Google maps I have by car 1h9min to RDO and 49 min. to WMI. Not a huge difference until the state completes train extension to the very terminal of WMI, which is supposed to happen in approx. 4 years. This is just 5 km of track, but it took ages to get an environmental permit, that was sued against by some environmental groups (yes, welcome to the EU!).
In order to launch RDO any ex-Yu airline should first talk to tour operators. For example most of the LO flights from RDO are in fact semi-charters with bigger planes, rare frequences and majority of seats sold to tour operators.
I think KRK very much stands out as an opportunity to connect Poland. Apart from Warsaw, no other airport offers a similar chance of success. KRK is already at 2,7 mln pax after April 2023. Its specialisation are mostly incoming pax.
Ideal LCC airport.
ReplyDeleteAs is a lot of airports around the area: Lodz, Lublin, Modlin, Olsztyn etc yet none of them are triving. The only one with real traffic is Modlin but only because of Ryanair.
DeleteI actually think JU should seriously consider this route. Ex-YU market can only provide them with limited feed for growth. This year they made inroads into the Turkish market which seems to be performing quite well for them. In addition to 17 weekly to IST they will offer 4 to ESB and 2 to ADB which comes out to 24 weekly flights all operated with A319/320.
ReplyDeleteFlights to Radom would have to be sustained with a well organized ad campaign in Warsaw. With lower operating costs they could be competitive on pricing compared to their competition that flies out of WAW. On the other hand, WAW is not that cheap and securing slots has become next to impossible.
We all remember LO's plans for BUD. It's good that Air Serbia rushed in and positioned itself quite well in the Hungarian market. Now it's time to look for new opportunities especially in Romania and Poland. These are two large markets with considerable outbound demand.
However, in order to attract these passengers they first have to inform them that they are flying out of their market. This is one of JU's major weaknesses. They need a good marketing department which will efficiently communicate with their customers, regardless if they are in Serbia or not.
If JU's goal is to grow and to become a relevant player in Europe then they need to adapt and accept the fact that there is a new set of rules which needs to be followed if you want to be successful.
Another thing worth following is Lufthansa's acquisition of ITA. Personally I don't have any high hopes and I doubt they are going to become a threat. After all, Lufthansa failed to fix Austrian Airlines, Eurowings or SN Brussles. Why should ITA be any different.
Furthermore, if they start expanding aggressively eastwards, then it's not just JU they are going to be attacking but Turkish Airlines, Wizz Air and Aegean. I highly doubt any of these airlines will just retreat as they all have considerable presence in Italy.
Air Serbia did the right thing when it decided to expand in Italy. You can't be a decent carrier and at the same time be content with covering Italy via Rome and your code-share partner. Air Serbia has worked hard to position itself on the Italian market. So far they seem to be doing exceptionally well especially in Rome and Bologna. Even Bari has been doing well despite being launched from the start of the summer season in stead of June as was the case last year. This was an important move in reducing seasonality.
With Krakow starting soon, Air Serbia should also take a closer look at Wroclaw. It's a wealthy region with relatively bad connectivity. They could serve this market with the ATR
Whit what metal could JU potentially start Radom? Is it too far for a comfy ATR flight? Montenegro's E jet would be ideal for the route.
DeleteThe flight itself wouldn't be much longer than BEG-PRG so technically they could operate it with the ATR. That said, I think it's far more realistic that they would launch these flights with the A319. In summer there should be enough spillover demand from WAW to fill 3 or 4 weekly flights.
DeleteDon't forget that JU could also carry whatever demand there is from Poland to Russia and especially to Moscow. Add to that destinations such as CAI, IST, ESB, AER, TIA, SKP, SOF, OTP... and I am sure they could get at least 100 passengers per flight.
RDO should only be served with bigger planes like B737. Serving it with smaller planes with higher costs per seat makes no economic sense as this airport is all about low prices.
DeleteAs to opening of WAW by JU the key question would be where are the P2P sales: in Poland or in Serbia. Most good clients from WAW are M&M frequent fliers, so for this reason they will stick to LO and Star Alliance. As to transfers: market is very saturated with connecting options, so to have success you would have to undercut the prices very heavily.
An example of that could be Moldova. LO had a lot of success on WAW-KIV route, also thanks to a lot of P2P. Moldovan airlines decided to take part in that success and started the route from WMI to have lower costs and undercut LO. It proved to be a miserable failure even though they undercut prices very much and the route WMI-KIV was very shortly closed. During that time I went twice to KIV with LO and my employer did not even consider sending me via WMI. It is not a serious airport if you travel on business.
Well another reason why LO was successful in KIV is because they did not rely on O&D but rather on transfers to both Europe and North America. This is a key market those airlines serving KIV-WMI did not have access to.
DeleteJU has to fight its way into these competitive and high yielding markets. They can't avoid them forever. After all, if they fought their way into BCN then I am sure they could do the same in Warsaw. Only issue with WAW are slots so finding an alternative airport could be a way to get around this problem.
Couldn't JU ask BEG to put pressure on LO / WAW to offer some slots to JU at WAW? I mean there has to be some reciprocity. I know the old time are long gone, but home airports can excert some pressure.
DeleteWell that's the thing, they can get slots at WAW but not the ones they want. So in reality Warsaw is cooperating with them and probably wants them to come back but due to congestion over there they can't give what they are asking for.
DeleteWAW is really not a big airport in terms of physical size yet LO has become as big as OS in terms of fleet. I actually think they have more widebodies than Austrian Airlines.
WAW is a level 3 slot restricted airport under the EU rules which means slots are awarded by an independent third party not by the airport. This is here ACL Limited from the UK.
DeleteThe rules for awarding slots promote the new entrants and put the incumbent (here: LO) at a disadvantage as it gets new slots last.
Many airlines did not manage to get slots they want in WAW like AA.
It is too far away from Warsaw, plus the market between Poland and Ex-Yu is not that big.
ReplyDeleteGive me the remote, change the channel...
ReplyDeleteRadom is a political project. I live in Warsaw for already 15 years and let me tell you that nobody wants to fly from Radom, and the airport is the target of memes and jokes here in Poland.
ReplyDeleteThere is a closer LCC airport just north of Warsaw, Modlin, but as the ruling party does not control it, they are blocking any attempts to extend it. Instead, they spend milions in making the new Radom airport from which nobody wants to fly from. (except people from Radom I guess). They forced LOT to open a few lines from Radom, but probably the results are disasterous. Dead airport.
I don't know whether Radom will be a success or failure. We can probably revert to that discussion in ten years. For one I am not gonna use it because it is less convenient for me than WAW.
DeleteBut I also remember that when WMI (Modlin) was opened the situation was the same: the "people" were supposedly saying they don't want to fly from the new airport but only from WAW and the airport had to beg Ryanair on their knees to start the flighs as there was for long no airline whatsoever interested in operating from WMI. Now it is practically full.
Before WMI construction started, it took WMI 10 years to get environmental permit and there is currently nobody (whether among opponents or among proponents) that thinks increasing the limit of slots per hour stated in that environmental permit is realistic. So while in theory there is a room for more capacity at WMI (if terminal were to be expanded), the remaining slots are to a large extent overnight. This may make some room for Radom. People having a choice to fly for family vacations at 10am from Radom or at 2 am from WMI, may choose Radom. We shall see.
One also needs to remebers that WAW is again congested and fees for WAW will skyrocket over the coming years.
From a financial perspective I think that the only of the three Warsaw airports that will ever be success is WAW, which remains a cashcow. WMI is a total financial failure, unable to meet operating expenses, not talking about repayment of financing needed for its construction. Radom may share this fate, although at least the loss here will not be met directly from my taxes as is the case with WMI, mainly owned by the region of Mazovia.
So how is Modlin surviving? Are they getting direct cash injections from the government? Do you know how big their loss was?
DeleteConstruction of WMI was financed by equity capital from its shareholders (WAW, region of Mazovia, local commune of Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki) plus bonds issued by WMI and guaranteed by the region of Mazovia. Each time a payment time under the bonds comes, the region of Mazovia makes another cash contribution to WMI (yes, from my taxes) and WMI makes a repayment:)
DeleteIn order to shield this failure, the region of Mazovia claims (as you could read in post 10:19) it is lack of new investments in WMI that is bringing this airport down. And indeed their co-shareholder - WAW (controlled by the governement) is unwilling to support new investements in WMI.
Still the reality is all investments foreseen in the initial business plan have been made and the number of pax outgrown all the initial plans. Still the airport is deeply in red.
The problem of WMI is an agreement with Ryanair, which pays peanuts. Hopefully when the current agreement expires there will be an opportunity to hike the fees and stopping losing money.
Interesting, thank you.
DeleteIf Adria would still exist it would be their newest senseless route .
ReplyDeleteThey flew a lot of polish routes before they went bust .
Exactly!
DeleteUnfortunately people forget easily.
Learn from the mistakes of others..
Wasn't it just the random base in Lodz?
DeleteLOT also flies to SJJ from Warsaw M
ReplyDeleteMostar to Ra(n)dom!
ReplyDelete