Poland: Green light from the Tusk government for the 34-million-traveler-per-year airport-giant

The Polish government has decided to continue the construction of a large new airport in the center of the country, which will be ready by 2032 and will be able to accommodate 34 million travelers annually, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Wednesday.

In parallel with this, work will proceed to modernize Poland’s regional airports, especially in Warsaw and Modlin, as well as to build a high-speed rail network connecting the country’s major cities, while also strengthening the state airline LOT.

“The Baranov Airport will be built,” but the project “is being rationalised,” said Tusk, denying reports that the new pro-European government coalition would cancel this project, which the previous populist nationalist government considered emblematic.

According to the new government, Baranov Airport is expected to cost around €10 billion and the total project with accompanying infrastructure will cost around €30.5 billion, with funds expected to be raised from government bonds, loans, European funds, and private investors.

By 2032, the LOT carrier is expected to have a fleet of 135 aircraft of various sizes, almost double its current fleet, in order to handle about 60% of the traffic at the new airport.

Tusk also announced that an earlier project for the first high-speed rail line (up to 320 kilometers per hour), connecting Warsaw with the new airport and Łódź, and then branching out to Poznań and Wrocław, will be unfrozen and implemented, a project that will be completed by 2035.

Poland, a country of 38 million people, “will become a large metropolis,” with access to all the major cities of the country (Poznań, Wrocław, Katowice, Kraków, and Gdańsk) “in less than 100 minutes,” the Polish prime minister told reporters.

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