After seven months of operation Poland’s youngest international gateway, Lublin Airport, last week celebrated handling its 100,000th passenger and senior executives from the airport have been attending the Routes CIS forum in Donetsk, Ukraine to raise further awareness to the new facility.

Lublin is one of 13 commercial passenger airports in Poland and opened for commercial services on December 17, 2012. The airport currently has three airline partners – EuroLOT, Ryanair and Wizz Air – which offer links to five international and one domestic destination. Additionally, the airport serves numerous charter flights, including services to Bulgaria and Turkey as well as other general aviation operations.

The 100,000 passenger milestone was achieved on July 17, 2013 as Miss Bronicka Paulina from Chełm flew back to Poland on a Ryanair flight from London Stansted in the UK. “It is wonderful to celebrate such a milestone at such an early stage in our evolution and we are already preparing for our 200,000th passenger and subsequent traffic milestones,” Piotr Plikus, Marketing and Development Director told The HUB on the sidelines of the Routes CIS Strategy Summit.

“We are seeing a positive growth trend and are confident that the growth will continue. Passengers have embraced our business concept and we are working with our existing airline partners and other operators to further our development,” Plikus added. According to official traffic statistics the facility handled 18,155 passengers in June 2013 and it expects to exceed the 20,000 level this month for the first time.

“We see the CIS as a strategic opportunity for us,” Ireneusz Dylczyk, Commercial Director at Lublin Airport explained to The HUB. “We are the only Polish airport at the event but our geographical position means we are in a strong position to benefit from the tremendous potential of markets like Ukraine.”

Although Lublin is the ninth largest city in Poland, it is the second largest in Lesser Poland and capital of Lublin Voivodeship (province), home to a population of over 350,000, according to 2011 figures. This figure is boosted by between 25 per cent and 30 per cent a year by the circa 100,000 students who come to Lublin to study every year. Lublin is the largest Polish city east of the Vistula River and its geographic position location means it is already benefiting from Ukrainian’s seeking low-cost air links.

“We are already generating a sizeable level of traffic from Ukraine as passengers cross the border and travel by ground transport to Lublin to take advantage of the low-fare offerings of Ryanair to Dublin, Liverpool and London Stansted and of Wizz Air to London Luton and Oslo Sandefjord,” said Dylczyk.