At the half-closed airport

Eddie and I walked down to Okęcie to see the works which have partially closed the airport for this, the second of three successive weekends. Wearing wellingtons - still necessary as this part of Warsaw is a sea of mud - we made it to the hill at the end of Runway 15/33. From up here we have a good overview. Below: Lufthansa Regional RJ85 D-AVRQ is taking off en route to Munich using less than half the length of RWY15. In the background, you can just about make out construction equipment in use at the junction of Okęcie's two runways: 15/33 and 11/29. (Click on photo to enlarge.) It is the intersection of these two runways that is being renovated.

Below: a convoy of trucks dashes across the airport inner perimeter road to collect more rubble. Time is tight; the airport is scheduled to be reopened tomorrow morning and the job fully completed by the following Sunday.

The only passenger planes landing and taking off this weekend are BAe 146s/Avro RJs operated by Lufthansa, Swiss and Brussels Airlines, and ATR 42s and 72s operated by EuroLot and Czech Airlines (below). Other flights have been diverted to other airports, mainly Łódź.

The unusually quiet airport (a mere 37 scheduled passenger flights in and out today) means that with uncluttered airspace, general aviation gets a look in. These two planes were flying around as Eddie and I approached the airport.

Above: Cessna 172 Skyhawk SP-RAP made a couple of touch-and-gos before flying off. And recording the works at the airport, one of Poland's most famous helicopters - Robinson R44 SP-TVN (below), used by TV stations TVN and TVN24 for aerial newsgathering. (TVN has two R44s; the other is registered SP-SKY). Note camera turret in the nose.

TVN24 footage from last week's runway closure here (no commentary) - it gives a good idea as to the scope of the work and the speed with which it's being carried out. We stroll across to the cargo terminal. Several aircraft are staying over at Okęcie until the runways are cleared for use. Below: A Ukrainian registered Antonov An-26, a regular visitor, seen in this post of a midsummer's evening coming in to land over our house.


Eddie and I continue our walk up to PKP W-wa Okęcie station, and catch a perfectly timed train back to Jeziorki, and walk home from there the back way across the fields. 10km covered on foot today.