Krakow

This Month in Krakow:

Shopping: Baboshska is a charming little shop where women can track down togs with witty Polish twists. Also offers inventive toys for children (22 Ulica Bozego Ciala).

Sightseeing: May sees the 10th edition of one of Krakow's hippest cultural events - the Month of Photography. Expect plenty of foreign guests, as well as shows at galleries and cafés across town (photomonth.com).

Key areas: If you're with youngsters, it's a perfect time of year to visit the sprawling Garden of Experiences, dedicated to science-fiction legend, Stanislaw Lem, who lived in Krakow for most of his life. Take a tram or taxi (Aleja Pokoju).

Day trips: Hire a bike or jump on a bus for Tyniec, site of a Benedictine Abbey. Stay on the southern bank for access to the monastery itself. Buses can be taken from Rynek Debnicki.

Krakow News & Gossip

Change From Above

When Dr Mark Casey was growing up in Newcastle upon Tyne, flying was a once-a-year, if-you're-lucky event. "Each winter my parents would book the next summer's package holiday to the sunny resorts of southern Spain and then spend the rest of the year saving to pay for it," he recalls. "Even as a teenager I never dreamed that travelling to other parts of Europe, let alone regions such as North Africa, would one day be within my reach."

But thanks to the service that easyJet provides, Europe's cities are now in easy, affordable reach of Casey and millions of Europeans. Over the past 15 years, scores of new routes have criss-crossed the Continent, bringing visitors, jobs and prosperity to cities that were previously known only to locals and the affluent jet set. Now dynamic, vibrant places like Newcastle, Tallinn, Nantes and Bilbao have become travel destinations in their own right, sharing the urban limelight with the likes of London, Paris and Rome.

Casey - now a lecturer at Newcastle University - has just submitted research to the journal Tourist Studies, in which he claims that easyJet and other low-cost airlines have been responsible for an economic and social transformation that has remapped Europe in what amounts to a "democratisation" of air travel.

"My research among residents, tourists and travel professionals in Newcastle and Barcelona shows that the availability of better value fares has allowed them to either take their first steps into the world of air travel or increase how often they fly," he says. "Before the arrival of easyJet, getting around the EU often meant flying via a hub airport such as London's Heathrow, Amsterdam's Schiphol or Barajas Airport in Madrid. Not only did such flights take much longer to complete, but the cost was often prohibitive for many. Now residents of cities from Newcastle to Barcelona to Kraków are able to pick from multiple flights that suit their plans, and they can travel direct between destinations, saving time and money."

Passengers of all incomes can now afford to fly abroad several times a year. That means that owning and maintaining a holiday home abroad is a realistic option for more people, and the trend for commuting to work in another country by plane is taking off. Access to affordable flights has become an important quality of life indicator in the West.

But the passengers aren't the only ones to benefit from this revolution. According to a standard industry measure, every extra million passengers in the sky bring 3,000 jobs on the ground. And easyJet has allowed regional cities to forge direct business and cultural links between one another. "easyJet and other low-cost airlines have transformed the concept of neighbouring cities," says Casey. "Today, Barcelona's neighbours aren't just Valencia and Madrid, but also Newcastle, Rome and Marrakech."

The notion that the "golden days of air travel" are over is nonsense, he reckons. "We are living in the golden days of air travel now. Yes, people may no longer look like a 1960s movie star when they board a plane, but ordinary people can now not only dream about foreign and exotic places, but actually visit them, get to know them and maybe even one day call these new places home. easyJet has given us more choice and mobility than ever before, and that surely has to be celebrated."

LIVERPOOL

Awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 2004 for its Maritime Mercantile centre, Liverpool was named European Capital of Culture four years later, drawing 15 million people and £800m (€926m) to the city. Of course easyJet can't claim credit for all that, but the airline has played a major part in the renaissance of this great maritime city.

The airline first started to operate from Liverpool in October 1997 with services to Amsterdam and Nice. Back then it was easyJet's second UK base, and the first low-cost service in England outside of the south-east.

It was a turning point for the airport, says Robin Tudor, head of PR at Peel, which operates Liverpool John Lennon Airport. In 1996, Liverpool's airport handled just over 600,000 passengers a year. Today, easyJet alone flies more than 2.3 million passengers in and out of the city each year, en route to 29 destinations.

"easyJet's decision to operate from here was the catalyst to this amazing growth in recent years, which has seen Liverpool become probably the UK's fastest growing airport," reckons Tudor. easyJet's surprise TV hit, Airline, also helped put Liverpool airport on the map.

The city has benefited too, thanks to the ease with which European visitors can now access Liverpool and north-west England. "easyJet has been a key factor in the boom in tourism in recent years," says Tudor.

KRAKOW

Each month 45,000 passengers fly to and from Kraków with easyJet. The route's popularity owes much to the Polish nationals working around Europe and returning home, but also to growing awareness of Kraków as a city break.

"Since arriving in 2004, easyJet has had a big impact on Kraków," explains Kraków Airport chief executive Jan Pamula. "It is an important carrier for those who work in the UK, but we have also experienced significant growth in the number of tourists. British and Irish people account for almost 30% of tourist traffic in our city."

"For the city of Kraków, low-cost carriers bring visitors and create income for hotels and restaurants. Kraków also has the famous Jagiellonian University - and thanks to exchange programmes the city now welcomes many overseas students."

BASEL

EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg, more commonly known as EuroAirport, straddles the French-Swiss border, and passengers leave by separate exits depending on which country they want to visit.

The airport faced an uncertain future following the dramatic collapse of Swissair in 2001, but fortunes were revived when easyJet agreed to make Basel its second Swiss base after Geneva in 2004, and it's now the biggest airline at the airport. The number of overnight stays in Basel has increased by around 50% since 2004 to more than 100,000 a year.

And it's not just the hotels and restaurants that benefit when easyJet comes to town, according to Daniel Egloff, director of Basel Tourism. "Global companies based in Basel profit by the extension of flight connections when they are hiring - especially when it comes to top managers. Accessibility is one of the most important decision criterions for employees," says Egloff. "Our city also benefits from easyJet's marketing - when it promotes the flight connection, it is also promoting the destination. Affordable air travel has made a strong contribution to the rise in popularity of city breaks and thanks to easyJet, Basel has been able to establish itself in that field, attracting a whole new segment of travellers that couldn't afford air travel before."

Krakow Trivia

• May: Krakow is one of Europe's oldest university cities, and once a year, the students are given the keys of the city, as well as carte blanche to sport fancy dress and get completely hammered. The so-called "Juwenalia" shenanigans kick off on 14 May and ended on the 20th.

• April: The life of legendary freedom-fighter Lech Walesa is currently being made into a major movie courtesy of Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda. When Walesa himself was asked by the press who he would most like to play the title role, he proposed Robert De Niro.

• March: A Portuguese historian named Manuel Rosa recently advanced the theory that celebrated explorer Christopher Columbus was in fact the son of a Polish King. Columbus's alleged grandpa, King Ladislas II, is entombed in Krakow's Wawel Cathedral.

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