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John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice (in Polish since 4 September 2007: Kraków Airport im. Jana Pawla II; earlier in Polish: Miedzynarodowy Port Lotniczy im. Jana Pawla II Kraków-Balice) (IATA: KRK, ICAO: EPKK) is an international airport located near Kraków, in the village of Balice, 11 km (6.8 mi) west of the city centre, in southern Poland. The airport has one concrete runway, number 07/25, 2550x60m. The airport can handle such a large aircraft as Boeing 747-400.
The airport opened for civil aviation in 1964. EPKK is the second busiest airport in the country after Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport. The airport has good growth prospects, as almost 8 million people live within 100 km (62 mi) of it. The airport also has a favourable location on the network of existing and planned motorways in this region of Poland, but it faces stiff competition from the nearby EPKT Katowice International Airport in Pyrzowice and other Polish airports like EPRZ Rzeszów. In 1995 the airport's name was changed from Kraków-Balice Airport to John Paul II International Airport Kraków-Balice, to honor Pope John Paul II who spent many years of his life in Kraków.
In 2003, when Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair became interested in starting a service from the John Paul II International Airport, the airport authorities refused to reduce the airport fee. In response, the regional authorities of Kraków and Lesser Poland Voivodeship decided to build a new airport near the existing one, using the infrastructure of the military airbase adjacent to the shared runway. Finally an agreement was reached, and the existing airport was opened to Ryanair and other low-cost carriers such as Germanwings, EasyJet and Centralwings. Over the past number of years low cost carrier Ryanair have grown services from Krakow Airport and since May 2010 Ryanair had 20 routes from the airport. The busiest international routes are to London (Gatwick, Stansted, Luton) and Dublin. On 28 August 2007, a Ryanair flight from Shannon suffered a bird strike on its final approch and blew its front tires during landing, resulting in an airport closure for a few hours and requiring an emergency evacuation of the aircraft. There were no injuries and the aircraft sustained no further damage.
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