Prague Airport Breaks Record

As of Tuesday (December 11), 16 million passengers have been cleared in the Václav Havel Prague Airport this year. It is estimated that 16.8 million passengers will be cleared by the end December. 

This is a 9 percent year-on-year growth of passengers at the airport and exceeds previous records of annual foot traffic in the airport. The airport plans to expand through several new investments within the next year. This year, the airport accommodated approximately 46,000 passengers a day. 

Václav Havel Airport has long been the fastest growing airport in Europe in the category of 10 million to 25 million passengers and is growing faster than the European average of similar-sized airports, airports experts noted.  Just within the third quarter, the number of passengers increased by 9.3 percent compared to the other similar-sized airports who saw 5 percent growth. 

“For the third consecutive year, Prague Airport records a record of the number of checked-in passengers and we expect approximately 1.4 million passengers to travel by 2018 than we did in the previous year, and we expect growth in 2019, both in the number of checked- which can reach three to five per cent, as well as the number of direct flights, “said Václav Řehoř, Chairman of the Prague Airport in an interview with Aktualine.

Plans include opening a new check-in counter at Terminal 1 and a whole new wing in Terminal 2. The reconstruction of aircraft stands on finger B should be completed soon and two waiting rooms will be modernized. They plan to start refurbishing the baggage claim and luggage pack. In the near future, there should be a new parallel runway (which will begin in four years) and an extension of Terminal 2.

The busiest month this year was July with nearly 1.9 million check-in passengers, and December could be on pace to beat that number. The most popular destination out of Prague is still London (1.28 million passengers travelled there this year). Prague flies to all six international airports in London. 

At the beginning of this year, three new carriers — American Airlines, Cyprus Airways, BA CityFlyer —started flying into Václav Havel Airport, and Prague was connected to six new destinations. At the same time, 17 existing lines increased the number of connections. Now, ten new destinations have been added to the flight schedule.  

Václav Havel Airport offers connection to 114 destinations in 42 countries. The highest number of flights head to Great Britain and France.  

Author: Meredith Hessel