English Section

Poland to seek permits for planned mega-airport, break ground next year

08.08.2025 13:30
Poland will apply this year for key construction permits for its planned Central Transport Hub (CPK) mega-airport, and aims to start building in 2026, government commissioner Maciej Lasek said on Friday.
Maciej Lasek.
Maciej Lasek.Photo: PAP/Szymon Pulcyn

Applications will cover the airport terminal in Baranów and a 4.6-km rail tunnel under Łódź, both due by 2032, Lasek told public broadcaster Polish Radio. A tender for a separate 10-km outbound tunnel linking Warsaw and Łódź is to be launched by year-end, he added.

The project has named state-run Polish Airports (PPL) as strategic investor, replacing a foreign partner envisaged by the previous United Right government.

President Karol Nawrocki on Thursday signed a draft bill in Kalisz that would steer the scheme back to the earlier blueprint, including shifting traffic from regional airports to Baranów and expanding airport capacity.

Lasek called the rerouting plan misguided, arguing most Poles prefer nearby airports. He said CPK throughput would still rise gradually, potentially to 40 million passengers a year.

Nawrocki also wants rail links to reach smaller eastern towns, proposing about 2,000 km of new track instead of the few hundred now planned between Warsaw, Poznań and Wrocław. Lasek said passenger-flow studies were under way to avoid building lines that would go unused.

Some of the president’s ideas are already being implemented, while others are impossible within the timetable, Lasek said, warning against legislating lower train speeds and branding certain transfer hubs unrealistic.

(jh)

Source: IAR, PAP