The Władysław Reymont Airport, commonly known as Lublinek after the district where it sits, celebrated the milestone last weekend with an open-air picnic featuring aircraft displays, demonstrations of airport equipment and the burial of a time capsule to be opened in 2125.
Wioletta Gnacikowska, spokeswoman for the Łódź airport, said the site, opened in 1925, is "the oldest airport built on Polish soil that has operated continuously in the same location for a century."
Visitors could view vintage and training aircraft including a PZL-104 Wilga and a Piper, planes from the Bartolini Air flight school and the Łódź Aeroclub, as well as a helicopter provided by the Military Aviation Works, a Polish company with more than 75 years of experience in military aviation.
On the apron, the airport showcased the vehicles and machinery used daily to service aircraft and the runway.
An exhibit of archival photographs and artifacts traced Lublinek’s development from a grassy field to a modern regional hub.
The airfield was inaugurated on September 13, 1925, on land then in the village of Lublinek, now part of the city roughly six kilometers southwest of the center.
Early facilities included a hangar, housing for pilots and managers, and a 40-hectare takeoff field.
Built with funds from the Polish Air Defense League, the airport quickly joined national routes linking Warsaw with the cities of Poznań and Kraków. Before World War II, passengers could also fly from Łódź to what are now the Lithuanian capital Vilnius and the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, then both part of Poland.
After the war, Lublinek was Poland’s second airport after Warsaw by route network, with flights to major cities including Kraków, Poznań, Katowice, Gdańsk and Wrocław.
In 1958, the communist authorities suspended scheduled passenger services, and for decades the field mainly served gliding, parachuting and general aviation through the Łódź Aeroclub.
Commercial traffic returned in 1999 following a runway extension and terminal upgrade, and a new passenger terminal opened in 2012, consolidating all operations there.
The airport handled more than 430,000 travelers last year, its second-best result on record.
Year-round scheduled services currently link Łódź with Alicante, Brussels Charleroi, Dublin, London Stansted, Birmingham, Milan and Malaga.
In the summer charter season, the airport also offers flights to Bulgaria, Greece, Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey and Albania.
(rt/gs)