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Arriving by budget low cost airlines
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Since June 2004 it is possible to save a lot of money thanks to the "no-frills" budget airlines. Low-cost airlines are moving rapidly to exploit the opportunities that have opened up in Krakow following the entry into the European Union.
In 2004 the first so-called budget carriers commenced regular operations from the John Paul II International Airport Krakow-Balice: 18th June – volareweb.com, 24th June – germanwings (currently operates flights to Cologne/Bonn, Hamburg and Stuttgart), 30th September – Slovak SkyEurope (flights to Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Birmingham, Brussels, Dublin, Dubrownik, Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Milan, Naples, Paris, Split and Torino), 13th October – English easyJet (flights to Berlin, Bristol, Dortmund, Liverpool and London).
2005 saw the arrival of the other carriers: 1st February – Centralwings, a low-cost airline owned by Poland's national carrier LOT (flights to Bologna, Heraklion, London, Malaga, Rhodes and Rome), 14th April – Norwegian (Oslo), 30th October – Aer Lingus (Dublin) and, last but not least, one of the first European low-cost airlines, expected in Poland for a long time – Irish Ryanair. Currently on its offer are such destinations as Dublin, Glasgow and Stansted of London. Recently it has announced plans to start flights to Shannon (Ireland) and Liverpool (UK).
11th April 2006 new Polish cheap airline – Direct Fly – started daily services between Krakow and Gdansk.
There is also another no frills carrier available. The Hungarian Wizz Air, the biggest low-cost airline in Poland, has set up a regional base in Katowice, which is just 1.5 h from Krakow. Wizz Air's bus connection between the Katowice-Pyrzowice airport and Krakow is available.
Currently low-cost airlines already transport more people than their traditional rivals. Thanks to that in 2005 Krakow-Balice became the most dynamicly developing Polish airport. 1 586 130 passengers was attended - it means increase of 88,5 % in relation to 2004. What about 2 000 000 in 2006? Well, forecasts are very optimistic.
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Aer Lingus is the national airline of Ireland. Based in Dublin, it operates over 30 aircraft serving Europe, the United States and recently Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Ireland's flag carrier turned low cost airline operates low fare routes from Warsaw and Krakow to Dublin and from Warsaw to Cork.
Tel: +44 870 126 67 26
bmibaby is the largest carrier at Birmingham International operating over 350 weekly flights to and from the airport this summer. The route from Birmingham to Krakow will start with a two times a week service for the winter operating from Birmingham on Tuesday and Saturday.
+48 22 558 00 45
Centralwings is the third budget airline to operate out of Poland, after Sky Europe, Wizz Air. Polish flag carrier LOT's low cost subsidiary flies from Warsaw, Krakow and Katowice to the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Malta, Spain, Portugal and the UK.
easyJet Airline Company Limited London Luton Airport tel. 0044 870 6 000 00 (UK)
The orange low cost giant flies from Warsaw to London Luton in the UK and from Krakow to London Luton and to Berlin Schönefeld and Dortmund in Germany. easyJet begins flying to Krakow on 11 April 2005, with one-way tickets starting at £25.99, including taxes, a tempting proposition for budget travellers.
Jet2.com tel. 0044 207 1700737
Low-cost airline Jet2.com is to begin flights from Leeds Bradford and Newcastle airports to Krakow in Poland this winter. Tickets will be priced from £19.99 one-way, including taxes, but the airline is offering special fares of £14.99 for the first flight from each airport. Flights from Newcastle will begin on October 30, with Leeds Bradford departures starting the following day.
Norwegian.no tel. +47 21 49 00 15
Having established Warsaw Frederic Chopin as its first airport base outside Norway, the Scandinavian no-frills airline Norwegian now operates budget routes from the Polish capital to eleven destinations in eight other European countries. On 14th April 2005 Krakow will host the first aeroplane of the Norwegian budget carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle AS, which will fly between the capital of Lesser Poland and the capital of Norway on Thursdays and Sundays.
Ryanair tel. +353 1 249 7744
Ryanair now operates a huge number of international flights out of eight Polish airports and - providing you book far enough in advance - has some of the cheapest fares of any low cost airline flying to or from Poland.
Sterling tel. +45 70 33 33 70
Sterling, scandinavian low cost airline, offers very cheap low cost connections from Copenhagen in Denmark to Krakow, Poland's most popular city.
 tel. +31 20 406 040 6 www.transavia.com Transavia is a Dutch low cost airline based in Amsterdam. The fleet of Transavia consisted of 28 planes in 2008. Transavia is an independent part of the Air France-KLM group. The passengers can amke a hotel reservation or rent a car visa Transavia's website. Flights to Krakow-Balice from Paris Orly.
tel. +39 091 255 10 12 www.volareweb.comVolareweb offer flights between Milan and destinations in southern Italy, Sardinia, Poland, France, Greece and other european countries. Flights to Krakow-Balice from Milan.
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