Poland’s busiest airport, Warsaw Chopin – formerly known as Okęcie, a name still popularly used – celebrated its 87th birthday this week. Its history has reflected many of the turbulent events that have hit Poland since its opening on 29 April 1934.
The ceremony for the new passenger terminal at Okęcie military airfield outside Warsaw, which replaced Mokotów as the Second Polish Republic’s main civilian airport, was attended by President Ignacy Mościcki and Prime Minister Janusz Jędrzejewicz. However, just a few years later it became a target for German bombs in the Second World War and had to be completely rebuilt in the 1940s and ’50s.
The airport was used by 10,000 passengers in its first year, a figure that passed one million in 1969, following the opening of a new terminal. After further expansion and modernisation following the fall of communism, the number reached almost 19 million passengers in 2019, when it was Europe’s 19th busiest airport. However, with the government pushing ahead with plans for a new “mega airport”, Chopin’s position could soon be superseded.
To mark this week’s anniversary, a set of three-dimensional reconstructions was created to give an insight into how the airport looked in the 1930s. In the archival photographs below, we take a look at the ceremonies, aircraft and guests from that bygone age.
Display of fighter planes above the control tower before the passenger terminal opened, 1933
President Ignacy Mościcki arrives for the airport opening ceremony, 29 April 1934
The president and prime minister with government ministers, diplomats and military officials during mass at the opening ceremony
The inauguration mass in front of the terminal building was officiated by Józef Gawlina, a general and bishop
Brothers Ben (Bolesław) and Joe (Józef) Adamowicz, American businessmen and amateur aviators of Polish descent, after their transatlantic flight in a Bellanca J-300, 2 July 1934
German women’s athletics team arriving at Okęcie, 1934
The British playwright and polymath Noël Coward disembarking a plane at Okęcie, 1939
German sport official Hans von Tschammer und Osten (light coat) visiting Okęcie in 1936, the year of the Berlin Olympics. Next to him is the president of the Polish Olympic Committee, Col. Kazimierz Glabisz
The departure lounge, with a map showing connections and the borders of the Second Polish Republic marked, 1930s
Hollywood director Ernst Lubitsch is welcomed to Okęcie, 1936
Polish foreign minister Józef Beck (right) with his Swedish counterpart Ricard Sandler arriving at Okęcie, 1937
The American aviator Charles Lindbergh and his Miles M.12 Mohawk plane at Okęcie airport, 1938
Prezydent Mościcki visiting the airport, 1939
Ceremony for the opening of flights from Warsaw to Szczecin after Okęcie had suffered major damage during the war, 1946
All images: Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe (public domain)
Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.
