Polish link strengthens with 8th direct flight

Published on Thursday 30 March 2006 02:32

SCOTLAND will see its eighth air link to Poland take off just nine months after the first, with Ryanair announcing yesterday a new link between Prestwick and Wroclaw.

The south-western city will provide a fifth Polish destination from Scotland when thrice-weekly services start on 1 August.

However, the move will also intensify competition in what is one of Ryanair's fastest-growing expansion areas, with three other airlines vying for passengers on the Scotland-Poland routes.

Europe's largest carrier, which accounts for almost all of Prestwick's 2.2 million annual passengers, launched flights from there to Krakow last November.

However, Wizz Air - eastern Europe's largest no-frills airline - started flights from the Ayrshire airport to Warsaw and Gdansk on Tuesday. Ryanair has previously seen off competition from other airlines flying on similar routes into Prestwick. Wroclaw will be its 20th route from the airport.

The Irish airline also faces east-coast competition to Krakow in two weeks when Slovakian airline SkyEurope starts flights from Edinburgh. Wizz is itself taking on Polish carrier Centralwings, which launched the first Scotland-Poland link, with Warsaw flights from Edinburgh in late October.

Flights from Edinburgh to Gdansk followed on Monday and to Katowice on Tuesday.

Karl Hogstadius, Ryanair's deputy UK sales and marketing manager, said it offered the lowest fares from Scotland to Poland, with return flights to Wroclaw from 36 inclusive. He said: "We welcome competition and it is good for Prestwick, but the winner ... is the passenger. The low-fares consumer chooses the destination after the price."