Christmas flight chaos at Warsaw's Modlin airport after safety fears

Warsaw's newly-opened Modlin airport has announced that all scheduled flights have been redirected to the capital's Chopin airport after concern about the state of the runway. 

A notice on the web site of Modlin airport – which opened this year to take much of the low-cost air traffic flying in and out of the Polish capital – announces (in Polish only on Sunday morning) that the 2500 metre runway has been cut to 1500, meaning scheduled flights using, for example, Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s will not now be able to land over the busy holiday period.

All flights, including those of no-frills airline Ryanair, are now being redirected to Warsaw's Chopin international airport.

The decision taken by the Provincial Building Inspector to cut the runway length at Modlin airport, around 45 kilometres from Warsaw, will be in place until at least 31 December.

"The ERBUD S.A. Company is required to repair any damage occurring to the runway under warranty [and] the company will also be required to cover [financial] losses resulting from the need to suspend operations at the airport,” says a statement by the airport.

Passengers can ring a special infoline – at 00 48 22 346 43 60 – for more information.

The news of more travel chaos at Modlin airport comes after low-cost airline Wizz Air announced last week that it was suspending flights over the Christmas period due to safety concerns about the lack of a ground-based instrument landing system (ILS), which provides precision guidance to planes as they approach runways.

Wizz Air said that the “unprecedented decision” to suspend the flights between 17 December and midnight on 6 January was taken “over the Christmas peak travel period for over 55,000 passengers who otherwise would be subject to Modlin Airport’s lack of ILS infrastructure and massive flight disruptions and cancellations".

Since opening for business in July this year, Modlin has handled over 720,000 passengers on more than 5,000 air operations. "By the end of the year we will have handled over 900,000 passengers,” claimed the airport in a statement in November, though those numbers will now have to be revised downwards.

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