City of Lodz

Lodz – one of the fastest nineteenth century growing cities in the world. Today Lodz agglomeration of 1,2 million inhabitants is a strong academic center. Lodz as a home to 25 colleges and 30 R&D institutes, producing over 27 000 graduates every year. With an industrial profile and strong academic base, the city feeds new foreign investments. Lodz’s unique character derives from the 19th century post-industrial architecture and its German-Jewish-Polish cultural heritage. The city and its region is mostly known for the film, textile and fashion industry, but also logistics. The area boasts strong business links with USA, Germany, Italy, France and Spain.

Airport location and catchment area

Lodz Władysław Reymont Airport is a regional airport in the central Poland, located approximately 6 km away from the third largest city. Thanks to very convenient location, passenger can reach the city center in just 15 minutes. While the city of Lodz has a population of 740,000, the wider-reaching region has a further 3 million inhabitants, extending the airport’s catchment area to 3.7 million people which reflects 9.6 % of the total population of Poland. Existing junction of motorways (A1, A2), expressways (S8, S14) and direct railway link due in 2014 will further enlarge the catchment area. 31 European capitals are within the range of regional flights from Lodz airport.

History of the airport

The airport has been in operation since September 13, 1925. Then, for many years, the airport has been used as a service and sport facility. Efforts to restart passenger traffic were undertaken in the 1990s.

Present day and expansion plans

Lodz Airport is mainly served by Ryanair, Wizz Air, OLT Express and from the October 2012 also by SAS. Present infrastructure of the airport allows it to handle wide variety of aircrafts, from small code "A" aircraft, through B737, A320, up to B767. The airport has recently undergone a number of upgrades enabling it to handle services by low cost carriers to many destinations in Europe. In January 2007 the runway extension to 2,500 m (8,202 ft) was put into use. In June 2012 a new international passenger terminal with a capacity of 2 million passengers per year was opened. Also the new apron, the capacity of which enables to operate four Boeings 737 simultaneously, has been accomplished. It makes our airport capable of operating seven code "C" aircraft at the same time, what means Lodz airport can operate as a backup airport for Okecie as well as other regional airports.
The airport is also ready for operating cargo flights – newly established cargo facilities are ready to operate (cargo warehouse with yearly throughput of 10,000 tones). Global companies like ABB, Amcor Flexibles, RRDonnelly, Bosal, Gillette, Hutchinson, Flextronics, Fujitsu, Dell, Ikea, Foxconn, HSV, Mecalit, Isopak, Indesit, DHL, Panattoni are based within the airport’s catchment area, highlighting the viability of air freight services from Lodz.

Marketing, pricing and incentives

Lodz Airport offers various incentive schemes to airlines and support in building relationships with local business.
Lodz Airport offers marketing support to airlines serving the airport, including:

Incentive schemes favoring carriers according to passenger volume and number of new routes opened.
Flexible approach to marketing support.
Support in building carrier relationships with the local public and business institutions due to the airport’s unique ownership structure entirely composed of the City and the Lodz Region.
Airport’s own handling department making handling charges scheme more flexible.
Why would you fly to Lodz? – check what’s new in "Lodz you fly" Magazine: www.lodzufly.com