Warsaw Chopin Airport

Warsaw Chopin Airport opened in 1934 at Okecie, on the southwestern edge of the city, replacing the older Mokotow field. The Second World War left it almost totally destroyed, and almost nothing of the prewar airport survived. It was rebuilt as the base of LOT Polish Airlines, founded in 1929 and one of the world's oldest airlines still flying. Okecie has been the city's main airport ever since.

A large terminal opened in 1969 and served the communist years, when LOT flew Soviet aircraft alongside a few Western types. That building was the airport's public face for two decades. Poland's opening to the West brought new airlines and new routes. After 1989 the airport was modernized fast, with a new terminal in 1992 and a further expansion finished for the Euro 2012 football championship.

In 2001 it was renamed after Frederic Chopin, the composer born just outside Warsaw. LOT rebuilt itself as a connecting airline, one that gathers passengers from many cities onto longer flights. Warsaw's position between Western Europe and the former Soviet states suits that job. Growth has pushed the airport near its limits, so Poland has planned a huge new airport between Warsaw and Lodz.

Chopin has two intersecting runways, 11/29 and 15/33. Because they cross, they cannot be worked independently, which caps capacity. A single terminal, expanded again and again rather than replaced, handles Schengen and non-Schengen flights behind a movable border. Schengen is the group of European countries with no passport checks between them.

LOT runs the hub, timing waves of small jets from Central and Eastern Europe to meet Dreamliner departures. Ryanair and Wizz Air fly here, though much low-cost traffic uses Modlin north of the city. A night curfew, a ban on late flights, limits scheduling, and cargo volumes stay modest.