Hochtief to expand Wrocław airport

Wrocław airport has selected Hochtief construction company as a general contractor for the new airport terminal.

Consortia of Budimex Dromex with Ferrovial Agroman and Mostostal Warszawa with Acciona Infraestructuras were other bidders, but proposed more expensive offers. However, all of them were lower than the budget dedicated for the project that amounted to 430 million zł. Dariusz Kuś, head of Wrocław airport, admitted that all three offers were of equal high quality, so the cheapest one was chosen.

The new terminal will be completed by March 2011 and will cost 296,730,450zł. It will be covered with 73-month developer's warranty. The terminal will feature 40,000 sqm, what will allow Wrocław airport to increase its capacity from 1.2 million to 3.2 million passengers annually. The entire project also includes development of access roads and a parking lot for 1,000 cars. The development should bring about 7,000 of new jobs. After some preparatory work, the actual construction will be launched on the turn of June and July.

Wrocław Airport (Port Lotniczy Wrocław) is a company owned by the city of Wrocław (47.82%), local government of the Lower Silesia region (Urząd Marszałkowski Województwa Dolnośląskiego - 27.16%), and the Polish Airports State Enterprise (25.02%).

Five contestants in a tender for Wrocław airport

Last week a tender commission selected five from ten consortia that would compete for a contract to expand the airport in Wrocław. Airport authorities assess the investment will amount to zł.300 million, and with additional infrastructure such as car parking roads leading to the airport and – zł.500 million maximum. Shareholders of the Wrocław Airport are the city of Wrocław, the government of Lower Silesia Voivodship and “Polish Airports” State Enterprise.

Next month the tender participants will present their price offers. The winner will be announced in June, and the construction should start in the summer. The consortia that moved into the second phase of the tender are Hochtief Construction with Hochtief Polska, Mostostal Warszawa with Acciona Infraestructuras, Mota-Engil with Mota-Engil Engenharia, Budimex Dromex with Ferrovial Agroman, and Skanska with Exbud Skanska. The new terminal was designed by JSK Architekci.

The construction work should be completed by September 2011. Depending on the air traffic the old terminal will be dedicated for low-cost carriers or private planes.

Wrocław airport paralyzed by fog

Only four flights from all the scheduled ones operating from the Wrocław airport took place on Wednesday due to bad weather conditions. Flights to Warsaw, Frankfurt, London, Brussels and Munich were called delayed and were finally cancelled as the heavy fog didn't lift up. 14 planes were directed to Kraków, Poznań or Katowice. Passengers awaiting departures of these planes had to travel to other airports. Some 1,000 passengers were affected.

Ryanair passengers stuck in Wroclaw

Nearly 200 passengers of Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair got stuck at Wroclaw airport after a cracked window has been detected in the plane that landed and was scheduled to leave for London.
The passengers were told the repair would take 6 hours. There was another Ryanair plane that landed in Wroclaw with an technician engineer on board, but the plane itself was not able to take the stranded passengers, because it was full with reservations.
According to the Wroclaw airport authorities broken and cracked windshields and windows happen very often in aviation and are not considered as a major damage.