Katowice Airport - A place to fly from not shop (Katowice International Airport (Poland))

Member Name: dangaroo

Product:	Katowice International Airport (Poland)
Date:	06/06/08 (164 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small or no queues

Disadvantages: Not much in the way of bars, restaurants, shops

Katowice International Airport is located in the south of Poland and unlike the majority of Polish airports which are usually relatively central it's a considerable distance from Katowice, located in Pyrzowice (about 29km north).

Getting There & Away
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Taxis are pricey and you are best off taking the bus which is there waiting for each individual flight and takes 40-50 minutes to get to the Central Train Station in Katowice via Sosnowiec, Qubus Hotel Katowice & Novotel Hotel Katowice. Coming the other way it leaves on the hour, generally giving you an hour and a bit to pass through customs (if travelling to the UK or North Africa) or simply to check in if to the rest of the Schengen. Bus tickets cost 20zl one way or 30zl return.

The Airport
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I've been there three times, once coming from Paris and once going to Rome and once returning. Each time, I had the same opinion of the airport - it acts well as an airport with little or no queues, quite calm security and you generally leave on time but there's little in the way of shops, toilets are upstairs and clean, there are a couple of coffee shops and two restaurants but you can't expect much for them as the airport is a glorified shed! The two passenger terminals were only completed in 2007, so despite the shed size and features, it sparkles like a marble in ash.

Flights
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Terminal A takes care of non schengen flights such as (from wiki):

Air Europa (Madrid [seasonal])

Air Italy Polska (Antalya, Chania, Hurghada, Manastir, Sharm el Sheikh) [Seasonal]

LOT Polish Airlines (Warsaw) operated by EuroLOT (Warsaw)
Ryanair (Bristol, Dublin)

Wizz Air (Belfast-International, Bourgas [seasonal], Bournemouth, Cork, Coventry, Doncaster/Sheffield, Glasgow-Prestwick, Liverpool, London-Luton, London-Stansted)


Whilst Terminal B stays within the Schengen:

Germanwings (Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart)
LOT Polish Airlines (Munich, Turin)
Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
o operated by Lufthansa CityLine (Düsseldorf)
o operated by Eurowings (Düsseldorf)
Sun D'Or (Tel Aviv)
Wizz Air (Brussels-Charleroi, Cologne/Bonn, Dortmund, Eindhoven, Girona, Hahn, Heraklion [seasonal], Malmö, Milan-Orio al Serio, Oslo-Torp, Paris-Beauvais, Rome-Ciampino, Stockholm-Skavsta)

Despite the distance to Katowice, it's still a good airport to use for short flights due to the lack of queues and hassle. It's not a place to go shopping but how many charters or business men really need to buy some tat if there are no delays?

Summary: Fine for flying, no good if you are Tom Hanks and want to live there though