Munich Airport - lessons for Poland

The Polish government is planning a Central Communication Port (Centralny Port Komunikacyjny) is the municipality of Baranów, 40km (24 miles) south-west of the centre of Warsaw. The airport is intended for a capacity of 40m passengers a year from the outset, ultimately rising to 100m.

On Thursday, I flew to Munich to meet Scottish firms on a trade mission to Germany who had expressed interest in the Polish market. The trip through Munich Airport gave me some insights into what the Polish authorities need to think of when planning a super-connector hub.

I touched down on time and discovered that making my way to the driver who was waiting for me would take a whole lot longer than leaving Warsaw Okęcie or 'London' Luton airport. A train ride was needed to get to the exit! Now, Munich last year handled 44m passengers, so it's comparable to Baranów's planned opening capacity. Many of these are travelling to Munich, 44km by road from the airport, so the link to the city is critical.

Up the stairs looking down at the airport railway station. Like London's newer Jubilee Line stations, glass walls and doors prevent passengers from falling on to the tracks. The trains have rubber tyres and are driverless.

At the exit, I was met by a driver with a tablet digitally displaying my name, who ushered me into the back of a brand new S-class Mercedes-Benz. Luxury! (though the trend for darkened rear windows is stupid - why deprive passengers of daylight, carmakers?) Out of the airport and onto the A92 Autobahn - three lanes of very slow, stop-start crawling traffic. It took 80 minutes to cover the 44km to the city centre. I got to my destination five minutes before my meeting.

My journey to the airport - leaving the city around the start of the rush hour - took 95 minutes. I had planned to arrive in good time for my flight, which I did (as it was, it was 35 minutes late). Anyway, Baranów planners note. If you want people to get to the airport on time, and from the airport to their business meetings on time, the two lanes of the A2 motorway between Konotopa and Stryków is totally useless. I'd suggest tearing up the central reservation and turning it the whole thing into one five-lane motorway in one direction, and building an entirely new five-lane motorway from scratch running in parallel. Otherwise - forget it.

Munich in the rain struck me as drab and shabby, a kind of larger version of Gorzów Wielkopolskie with posher cars. The trams (four cars long) were something that many Polish cities could do with.

Back at Munich Airport; being a hub for global airlines, it needs to be able to serve the largest planes. Here's an Airbus A380 - note two bridges, one for the lower deck, one for the upper deck.

Another A380 across at another terminal (numbered A-M; my gate was K04). Will Baranów also have a couple of hundred gates?

If Baranów is to be even bigger than Munich (which is only the world's 38th busiest airport - behind London Gatwick, in 33rd place) the Polish planners need to work out how to attract the airlines, turn state carrier LOT Polish Airways into a super-connector like Emirates or Turkish and then plan how to get passengers to Warsaw and back quickly. Otherwise, the whole plan makes no sense at all.

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