Ryanair slams Poland’s ‘stupid’ $10 billion new airport project

Bloomberg

Poland’s plan to build a $9.4 billion central airport 45 kilometres (27 miles) outside of the capital will be a waste of money that would be better spent on improving existing facilities, according to Europe’s biggest low-cost carrier Ryanair Holdings Plc.
Warsaw already has two operating airports, whose capacities aren’t fully used and could be expanded instead of building a “big new shiny cathedral in the middle of nowhere,” Ryanair Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary told a news conference. The cost of the project, including new road and train infrastructure, will amount to 75 billion zloty ($20 billion), or more than a fifth of the revenue target in this year’s national budget.
“It’s a stupid plan,” the CEO of the most popular airline in Poland said in Warsaw. “It’s a kind of plan that only politicians and civil servants could come up with.”
The government in the European Union’s largest eastern economy wants to erect a new hub in the central Polish town of Baranow, by 2027.
Authorities argue that the airport is necessary as the number of airline passengers in the country is set to double by 2035.

New Hub
The new airport will “facilitate trade” for Polish entities with partners from North America as well as Asia, according to Mikolaj Wild, the government’s point-person for the project. With it, Poland will become a “main communication hub” in east Europe, he told TVP Info, which didn’t ask about O’Leary’s comments.