Kraków Airport (KRK)

John Paul II Kraków–Balice International Airport (IATA KRK, ICAO EPKK) lies in the village of Balice, 11 km west of Kraków’s centre at 241 m, directly off the A4 motorway — about 25 minutes by coach to the centre, 17 by the airport train. It calls itself the largest regional airport in Poland, with about 7.9 million people within 100 km, and is the country’s second-busiest after Warsaw Chopin.

It handled 13.2 million passengers in 2025, up 19.6% on 11.1 million in 2024. There is one passenger terminal — completed in December 2016, Schengen and non-Schengen, open around the clock, 24 gates; a further terminal is planned under the KRK2036 master plan. A roofed footbridge links it to the airport rail station, the multi-storey car park and the airport hotel.

Ryanair has based aircraft here since 2013; Wizz Air, LOT and Buzz treat it as a focus city; in 2023, 25 airlines flew 161 connections to 123 airports in 35 countries. The mix covers the low-cost UK, Irish and Italian markets, the Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France–KLM hubs, the Nordics, and long-haul — LOT to Chicago and, in season, Newark, plus Gulf carriers to Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. The busiest routes in 2024 were Frankfurt, London Stansted, Warsaw, Amsterdam and Oslo, with three London airports and Manchester in the top nine.

Where the coach meets the group: everything happens in one terminal. Arrivals exit at level 0; the long-distance coach and bus stop is the middle shelter, number 2, in front of the terminal by the footbridge; a Kiss & Fly lay-by in front of the terminal serves short drop-off and pick-up. Our name-board meet & greet is at the arrivals exit and walks the group straight out to the coach.

Two roads lead into Slovakia. The Zakopianka (DK7/E77) runs south through Chyżne–Trstená into the Orava valley for Liptov, Jasná and the D1; the Tatras road runs through Zakopane, about 90 km south of Kraków, to the Łysa Polana crossing, where the Slovak Cesta Slobody begins under the peaks. Airport to the Slovak border is about two hours by coach; Tatranská Lomnica and Starý Smokovec about 2.5 hours door to door; Terchová and the Vrátna valley about three hours.

Which airport for the High Tatras: choose Kraków when the group’s origin has no Poprad flight — which is most of Europe: Poprad–Tatry has one year-round scheduled route and about 112,000 passengers a year, Kraków 13.2 million. Choose Poprad when the London, Gdańsk or Prague timings work and every transfer minute counts — 12–23 km to the resorts. Košice (KSC) is the alternative when the programme continues east. Kraków also works as the exit airport of an open-jaw programme that opens in Vienna or Bratislava; we run the ground at both ends at net rates.