Centralwings, Poland’s fastest growing low cost carrier, which launched its routes to and from UK and Ireland earlier this year, is helping to satisfy an increasing appetite among British and Irish tourists for all things ‘Polski’.Ê
According the Institute of Tourism in Poland, during the first three months of 2005, Poland welcomed 54% more British visitors to its shores than over the same period in 2004.Ê This increase follows the country’s admission into the European Union last year and is well up on previous years where Poland saw only a 25% increase in UK visitors between 1995 and 2004 (when numbers rose from 191,000 to more than 247,000 during this nine year period).
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As Poland increases in popularity amongst UK travellers and Poland’s entry into the EU has made it easier for Poles to travel to the UK, Centralwings has been able to take advantage of an increase in demand by launching flights from London Gatwick to Krakow and Warsaw.
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Since launching earlier this year, Centralwings has carried more than 470,000 passengers.Ê The airline has also sustained an average load factor of more than 95% on its London routes - success which bookings indicate will continue over the coming months as the airline looks to launch new routes in its winter schedule.Ê
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Commenting on the airlines success Piotr Kociolek, President of Centralwings, said “We are extremely pleased with our success over the
past six months, however we are not surprised.Ê Poland is Centralwings home ground and we know the market well.Ê Since Poland’s entry into the EU, the country has seen a huge increase in leisure and business travel both into and out the country.Ê By focusing on providing a safety and quality at a reasonable price, we have been able to take advantage of this increase and look forward to building on this success when we launch our new routes over the coming months.”Ê
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Within its winter flight schedule, which opened for booking on June 30, Centralwings offers five new European routes including: Dublin, Shannon, Edinburgh, Grenoble and Milan from as little as £9.45/€14.45 (excluding taxes and charges), whilst also increasing the frequency of its flights on the Warsaw to London Gatwick and Krakow to London Gatwick routes from 11 to 16 times per week.
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These newest routes offer the only direct flights from Warsaw to Edinburgh and Shannon and from Katowice to Dublin and Wroclaw to Dublin, making Poland an even more appealing destination for UK and Irish travellers.Ê
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