The Polish Transport Ministry plans to spend 400 million euros (508 million U.S. dollars) on the development and modernisation of the Polish airport and navigation infrastructure from 2007 to 2013, the PAP news agency reported Friday.

The projects would be financed by a European Union fund known as the Infrastructure and Environment, Polish Deputy Transport Minister Eugeniusz Wrobel was quoted as saying.

The Transport Ministry is developing a strategy for infrastructural projects in airports, the national airport grid and necessary changes in legislation, notably the liberalization of aviation law.

"The present regulations on aviation are restrictive beyond the extent required by the EU," Wrobel explained, "This hampers the development of air traffic, especially with regard to small, private planes that could be the driving force of the aviation business."

There are 12 airports in Poland: the Warsaw Okecie International Airport and 11 regional ones. They handled 11.5 million passengers last year and 8.8 million in 2004.

Source: Xinhua