Olsztyn-Mazury Airport

In the 1990s, the airport readied to also handle passenger flights. To allow this, a civil airport operator was established in January 1996. A first civil aircraft landed in June 1996, an ATR turboprop aircraft operated by state-owned LOT Polish Airlines[2] To serve these flights a small passenger terminal was opened and operated.

The majority of passenger flights to land in Szymany were charter flights from German destinations like Cologne, Dortmund, Hannover and Stuttgart.[3][4] The flights were sporadic during the summer months.

The civil operator was owned through various municipal governments and state companies. It was not very successful and made very high losses.[5] In 2003, passenger flights came to an end. The company ended its activity in 2004 with 3 million Zloty in debts.

In 2005, Szymany airport officials were in talks with Ryanair about launching flights from Szymany from 2006 on. The low-cost airline planned to connect Szymany with London and Germany using its Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The resumption of flights would have required renovation and expansion of terminal facilities and the runway, costing some five to six million Polish Zloty.[6] The conferences to open the airport stalled, however, and as a result the airfield was left as it was, without any client/operator running flights to the airfield, save for the occasional business flight.

The airport gained attention in the press in 2005, when it was alleged to have a connection with a so-called black site involved in the CIA's network of extraordinary renditions. Terrorist suspects were to be secretly held, and even tortured, in violation of Polish law, by the CIA. Flight records show that an airplane leased by the CIA flying from Kabul to Guantanamo Bay made a stop in Szymany. Officials from the airport have confirmed that some of these flights bypassed normal customs-clearing procedures, and that during the time of these landings, the airport regularly received visits by cars bearing markings associated with the Stare Kiejkuty intelligence training school outside the nearby village of Stare Kiejkuty.

As recently as November, 2006, the European Parliament investigative commission led by Claudio Fava had been told, when asked for the flight logs of 11 specific flights observed to have transited through Szymany, that "[the records] have [not] been retained, have been faxed and destroyed, and finally said to have been saved in an unspecified place."[7] The commission report also quotes Szymany officials as confirming six occasions in 2002 and 2003 when Gulfstream jets bearing civilian registration numbers had landed at the airport, bypassing customs clearance. Airport officials had been directly ordered not to approach the aircraft, and vehicles bearing military registration numbers affiliated with the nearby base at Stare Kiejkuty awaited the arrival of each aircraft.

In June 2008 a New York Times article claimed, citing unnamed CIA officers, that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was held in a secret facility in Poland near Szymany Airport and it was there that he was interrogated and waterboarded before beginning to cooperate.[8]

In February 2010 Polish officials recanted previous denials, and admitted that at least six CIA flights passed through Szymany in 2003.[9]

Following several quiet years, ideas again come up to reconstruct the airport in order to resume passenger services. By the end of 2013, plans became very substantial. An investment of 200 million was planned that included extension and renovation of the runway from 2000 to 2500 metres, aprons, taxiways and a brand new terminal. 76 percent of the investment could be funded by the European Union with local government paying the remainder. EU funds would only be granted as long the reconstruction airport would be operative by the end of 2015, resulting in tight schedule for construction.[10]

The initiators of the project estimated a passenger volume of 56.000 travelers in the first years with an expected growth within twenty years to 731.000 passengers. Aircraft movements should initially be around 5600 per year, growing to 17.000 during the same period.[11]

In early August 2014, Mostostal won the tender for construction of the terminal after the original tender was cancelled.[12]

Terminal interior

Check-in desk in the terminal

In October, it became public that the airport planned to have connections to Munich, Berlin and Kraków initially.[13]

In late October 2015, the airport finally signed an agreement with Polish airline Sprint Air. The airline set aside one 33-seated Saab 340 aircraft for operations. Starting January 2016, the airline would serve Berlin Tegel and Kraków, each thrice-weekly. The contract for the subsidized flights was just valid for the first quarter of 2016 in first place. Tickets to Kraków were available from 99 PLN while Berlin was starting at 149 PLN.[14][15]

On 20 January 2016, the first ever scheduled passenger flight took off from the airport with a SprintAir service to Berlin Tegel Airport.[16] On 7 March 2016, the airport announced that it has extended its contract with Sprint Air beyond late March to 3 June 2016. The continues to service Berlin Tegel and Kraków thrice weekly, although with a slightly modified schedule.[17]

The first jet route was announced to Munich on 1 April 1, 2016. Starting 17 June 2016, Adria Airways would operate a thrice-weekly connection to Munich onboard its CRJ aircraft. Adria Airways is the flag-carrier of Slovenia, but at this time had already gained a lot of experience outside of Slovenia, also in Poland where an aircraft is based in Łódź. Furthermore, it is active in Albania and Kosova and supports the establishment of the new Estonian flag-carrier.[18]

Another route was just one week later, a thrice-weekly connection to London Luton operated by Wizzair. Wizzair thereby made Olsztyn Mazury its ninth destination in Poland. Flights were due to commence just one day after the Adria Airways launch, on 18 June 2016. Wizz Air is known for their all-Airbus fleet of A320s and A321s, meaning that a greater number of passengers can be served through the airport rather than with CRJs and Dash-8 aircraft alone.[19]

On 23 May, SprintAir got renewed its contract to also cover flights beyond June 5 to the end of the summer schedule. In this occasion, a third route with the airline to Wroclaw, starting on June 6, was announced.[20]

Ryanair was then selected to become the second low-cost carrier to land in Olsztyn. Commencing on 1 November 2016, the carrier was set to service London Stansted thrice a week on its Boeing 737-800 aircraft, despite the fact that its counterpart Wizzair already would serve London Luton thrice a week then. The decision was made public on 31 May with a promotional flight was done to the airport.[21]

By mid-June 2016, LOT Polish Airlines opened bookings for a three-weekly service from Olsztyn to their hub Warsaw on board their 78-seated Bombardier Q400. Running in the middle of the day, the service should deliver many connection options to other destinations within the LOT network. Flights were announced to take place from 2 July to 1 October 2016.[22]

In the first of months of operation, the airport saw only two routes flown by Sprint Air. However, a lot of new airlines were announced in the meanwhile as outlined, namely Adria Airways, LOT Polish Airlines, Ryanair and Wizzair. The first of them to start was Adria Airways in June. On 30 July 2016, the new Olsztyn-Mazury Airport handled its 15.000th passenger.[23]

In August, Adria Airways announced that it would terminate its subsidies route to Munich on October 28.[24] SprintAir operated its final service in Szymany on October 30 after its contract was terminated. Thereby, only low-cost flights were scheduled during the winter schedule 2016/17.[25]