Poland opens skies to low-cost fliers

BUDGET tourists will soon be flying in to Krakow with moves to open up the Polish market to low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet.

The local authority in Krakow, where Pope John Paul II spent his formative years and became the city's archbishop, plans to build a terminal specifically for no-frills carriers.

Until now, the budget airlines have been deterred from flying to Poland because the government-owned company that runs the country's airports charged high landing fees. But last week, the Polish Army Property Agency transferred land it owned next to the John Paul II Krakow-Balice International Airport to the city of Krakow for develpment.

Jacek Majchrowski, mayor of Krakow, said: 'We have removed the last obstacle to lure the low-cost airlines.

'We want to offer them our own airport terminal before the next summer holidays.' A spokesman for Dublin-based Ryanair said the company had looked at potential new routes into eastern Europe and Poland and was interested.

He added: 'Poland is a big market and it is close to Germany, and while we have plenty of other opportunities in Europe, this is one that we would have a look at.'

The arrival of the budget airlines could herald a major tourist boost for the city.

Krakow is Poland's capital of culture, boasting the country's oldest university and library and the world's oldest shopping mall, the 700-year-old Cloth Hall.

Krakow's central Grand Square is the largest surviving medieval square in Europe and it even has its own leaning tower on the town hall, which was blown sideways in 1703.

Krakow is also an hour's drive from the former Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, which are visited by hundreds of thousands of people each year.