It’s hard to imagine that two planes take off from two crossing runways but that’s the system Okecie airport has. Once it was an advantage, today, it’s not. That’s why Przedsiebiorstwo Porty Lotnicze (PPL), the owner of the airport, considers to liquidate one of the runways and build another, parallel one. The company explains that many years ago, crossing runways were designed because planes could land there whatever the wind. However, two planes cannot take off or land at the same time.
“The new plan would improve the life conditions of the inhabitants of Ursynow and Ursus quarters”, Pawel Latacz, PPL head said.
The plans were prepared many years ago. In 2002,
the Ministry of Infrastructure decided that instead of modernizing the runways,
other airports should be built in Mazowsze region, including the central
airport. The latter was planned to be built in Mszczonow. Eugeniusz Wrobel, the
deputy Minister of Transport, stresses that these plans are being underway now
but in shorter term it seems wiser to re-built the runway at Okecie airport. In
his opinion, the Warsaw airport would increase the number of passengers
substantially. According to some experts, it would be even 100 percent. Today,
Okecie has 12.5m passengers annually.