Bratislava Airport served almost 2 million passengers in the first half of the year and plans to reach over 4 million by the end of the year. This growth requires investment in infrastructure, so the government is already considering terminal expansion projects.
Big Changes at Bratislava Airport
The Ministry of Transport and the airport management are preparing for a large-scale modernization. Several architectural firms have already offered their services, but their prices were too high. Therefore, a public tender for the expansion project design is planned for closer to winter.
In the long term, there is an ambitious idea to build a railway terminal directly at the airport. This would allow trains going, for example, from Prague to Budapest to stop at the Letisko station, which would significantly simplify logistics for passengers.
More realistic plans are already being implemented:
- Apron Expansion. Work to increase the aircraft parking area will begin soon. Low-cost airlines Ryanair and Wizz Air plan to base additional aircraft in Bratislava to open new routes, but currently, there is nowhere to park them.
- Non-Schengen Zone Reconstruction. Modernization will increase capacity without physically expanding the building.
- First Jet Bridge. The airport will soon install the first jet bridge (passenger boarding bridge) in Slovakia's history; it has already been purchased.
- New Jobs. Since the beginning of the year, Bratislava Airport has hired about 200 new employees, not including temporary workers.
Where You Can Fly: New and Announced Routes
The management of the capital's airport has announced the opening of several new destinations and the expansion of existing ones.
Bratislava
Flights to Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Porto may appear soon. Additionally, negotiations are underway with Chinese airlines to launch a direct flight to Beijing, which could be a historic event for Slovakia.
Schedule changes have already been confirmed:
- Ryanair will fly to Paphos (Cyprus), Tirana (Albania), and Warsaw year-round, not just in the summer. From the end of October, the airline will also open a route to Turin.
- Wizz Air will launch several new destinations from the capital in the autumn.
- Direct bus service has been launched from the airport to the Hungarian city of Győr.
Regional Airports
- Košice. The airport in the east of the country is also breaking records, with half a million passengers since the beginning of the year. They are also talking about terminal expansion and cautiously discussing the possibility of opening a route to Barcelona.
- Poprad. The airport near the Tatras is experiencing a boom in charter flights, unprecedented in the last 15 years. Flights to Prague are expected in the autumn, and the frequency of flights to Gdańsk will increase.
What About Our Neighbors: News from Vienna and Prague Airports
Airports in neighboring countries, often used by Ukrainians, are also developing.
Several new flights for the autumn have been announced in Prague:
- EasyJet will fly to Hamburg, Lille, and Marrakech.
- Ryanair is opening a route to Palermo.
- Wizz Air is launching flights to Vilnius.
- Eurowings will start flying once a week to Rovaniemi, Finland, at the end of December. Prices start at 60 euros one-way without luggage.
And at Vienna Airport, as we have already reported, restrictions on carrying liquids in hand luggage were recently lifted thanks to new scanners.
Source: telegram.me
