Krakow Airport says passengers should see a major change in its shopping and dining offer once a long-planned expansion is completed in 2029. The airport’s current airside space is limited, which has restricted how much commercial and food service space it can provide.

“We are doing everything possible to make the best use of the space available to us,” said Lukasz Strutynski, president of the airport in Balice. He said the improvements would come only after the terminal expansion and the addition of new piers.

For now, the airport says it is working within the constraints of the existing layout. That has made it difficult to significantly widen the range of shops, cafes and restaurants available to departing passengers.

The planned redevelopment is expected to change that. Once the terminal grows and the new piers are built, Krakow Airport believes it will have more room to improve the passenger experience and expand its commercial offer.

The comments point to a wider trend at major airports, where retail and dining are increasingly used to improve both traveller satisfaction and revenue. But at Krakow, officials say the current building footprint leaves little room for meaningful upgrades in the short term.

Strutynski’s remarks underline how closely commercial development at airports depends on infrastructure capacity. In Krakow’s case, the next major step is the 2029 expansion, which airport leaders say is the point at which passengers can expect the biggest visible changes.

The airport has not given a detailed timeline for individual shop and restaurant openings. But it has made clear that the full transformation depends on the broader terminal project, rather than smaller interim tweaks.

That means travellers using Krakow Airport in the coming years are likely to see only gradual adjustments until the larger construction work is completed. The main shift, the airport says, is still several years away.