First 3Qs of 2021 see almost 13 mln passengers at Polish airports

In the first three quarters of 2021, Polish airports serviced over 12.9 million passengers, the Civil Aviation Authority (ULC) announced on Thursday.

The ULC also reported that the figure was 65.7 percent down compared to the same period of 2019 but 1.3 percent more than the first three quarters of 2020.

"In Q3 of 2021, there was an intensive revival of the aviation market," the ULC wrote on its website.

In Q3, almost 9.1 million passengers were services at Polish airports, representing a growth of 93 percent on Q3 2020, but a fall of 40.9 percent against Q3 2019.

The aviation authority attributed the rise to multiple factors, particularly a higher number of offered connections in the summer timetable, lower coronavirus infection figures, the progress of the anti-Covid-19 vaccination programmme, and the availability of EU Covid certificates. 

Poland's busiest airports were Warsaw Chopin with 5.1 million passengers, Krakow-Balice with 2.3 million, and Gdansk with almost 1.5 million passengers.

The highest growth rate against the first three quarters of 2020 was reported by Katowice Airport with 440,000 more passengers.