Construction of the huge airport is due to start in 2026. The company implementing the investment has announced that the construction project for the CPK is ready. The Central Communication Port will be the largest airport in Poland and will combine air, rail and bus transport under one roof. The design of the facility was prepared by the famous Foster Partners studio.
Foster Partners is a British architectural practice that has designed many famous buildings and structures around the world. Examples include the iconic Millennium Bridge in London or the 30 St Mary Axe skyscraper also in the city, which resembles a cigar. The studio has also worked on the design of Apple’s grand headquarters (Apple Park). It is also responsible for the design of the huge Red Sea International Airport in Saudi Arabia. The Polish CPK joins the list of projects.
The handover of the finished CPK construction project starts the procedure, which is expected to end with the acceptance of the project later this year.
This is another milestone on the way to the goal of building and operating a new airport. This investment is an impulse for Poland’s further economic development, while at the same time strengthening the market position of the national carrier PLL LOT,” said Maciej Lasek, government plenipotentiary for CPK.
The opening of the first stage of the airport is scheduled for the end of 2032. Ultimately, passengers will be able to use three levels of the building. On level 2, there will be a check-in desk, security control, the Schengen arrival and departure area and the Non-Schengen arrival area. Lower down on level 1, space has been designed for Non-Schengen arrivals and departures, transfer centres and document control rooms. On level 0 will be the Schengen and Non-Schengen bus gates, the baggage reclaim hall and the arrivals hall.
As announced, we are consistently implementing the next steps in preparation for the construction of the new airport. We have received the construction documentation from the designer, which includes, among other things, some 6,250 design drawings and more than 50 reports. A meticulous verification of the documentation is currently underway,” says Dr Filip Czernicki, president of the CPK company.
The new building will be connected to the piers that will lead to the aircraft. Already in 2032, the airport will be able to handle 11,000 passengers per hour. The plan is to have almost 140 check-in desks inside on opening days. The architects have left open the possibility of increasing the number of check-in desks to 170. In total, the facility will cover 450,000 square metres.
The CPK master architect consortium includes the tendered design offices Foster Partners and Buro Happold, as well as more than 30 other firms from various industries, including, for example, NACO, Kuryłowicz & Associates and Cundall. In total, almost 500 designers were involved in the airport and station master architect.
What has changed in the project over the past year? The concept has become more flexible, i.e. part of the project will be realised if the traffic forecast indicates such a need. This optimisation is expected to reduce the budget needed for the project. The north pier and the central pier will be built first, while the south pier will be built if increased traveller traffic requires it. The piers themselves have been shortened by about 100 m to reduce the distance needed for passengers to walk and to facilitate transfers.
In the first stage, CPK will have a capacity of around 34 million passengers per year. Chopin Airport handled 18.5 million passengers in 2023. An interesting piece of information from April this year. At the time, Polskie Porty Lotnicze announced that Chopin Airport would be rebuilt to handle up to 28 million passengers a year. The expansion of the passenger terminal of the capital’s airport would start in 2026.
In the case of CPK, as many as 40 per cent of passengers are expected to be transfer passengers who will be changing planes.
As part of the phasing of the construction of CPK, the following have been selected for construction first: the northern pier (B) intended for long-haul flights to the Non-Schengen zone, and the central piers (C and D) with flexible functionality for handling flights to the Schengen and Non-Schengen zones. Construction documentation has been prepared for the south jetty (E), with its implementation planned for the next stage (to be verified depending on continuously updated traffic forecasts). In the next stages of the airport’s expansion, further piers will be realised: north-west (A) and south-west (F), the press release reads.
In the first stage, the built CPK is to offer 27 stands for narrow body aircraft and 23 stands for wide body aircraft. Between 50 and 68 aircraft will be able to be handled at the sleeves, depending on the type of fleet.
New to the construction project are changes to the roof structure. Compared to the conceptual design, the roof cradles will be finished with a material that is ‘warmer’ in appearance. The number of skylights has also been reduced and their location changed. Another change is the abandonment of the overhanging roof over the front of the terminal, the plan now being to build an arcade based on pillars. This solution is intended to improve the durability of the structure and its resistance to adverse weather conditions.
The CPK company assumes that it will obtain a location decision from the Mazovian Voivode by the end of 2024, upon receipt of which it will be possible to apply for an airport construction permit. According to the updated schedule, the new airport is expected to be operational at the end of 2032. – at the same time as the planned section of the High Speed Railway between Warsaw and Łódź.
project: Foster Partners
source: CPK press materials
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