January 2010

OPENING OF “MUSEUM OF CONSUMER ELECTRONICS” EXHIBITION

On 26^th January, a historical exhibition of electric appliances was ceremonially opened in Prague Airport’s Terminal 2. The “Museum of Consumer Electronics” is an interactive exposition mapping a rapid development of consumer electronics from the beginning of the 20th century until now. Nine display panels present different development stages of gramophones, tape players, radio receivers, portable players, telephones, TVs and computers. The collection comprises of about a hundred of appliances, some of which can be tried out by visitors themselves. The exhibition project that also promotes recycling of time-expired electric appliances in an entertaining way will be on display at Prague Airport till 5^th April 2010.

As of 1^st February 2010, a new aircraft painted in Prague Airport’s colours will make its first commercial flight from Prague. The Boeing 737-800 aircraft with a new design will be operated by Travel Service airline on mid-haul charter flights to Europe, the Mediterranean and Middle East. Adorned with the Prague Airport’s company logo and additional graphic elements inclusive of a remarkable stamp bearing the motto: “Prague Loves You”, the new logojet shall promote the destination and attract people to come to Prague for a leisure or business trip. The new design replaces a previous Prague Airport-branded aircraft that was introduced in April 2007 at the occasion of the airport’s 70^th anniversary.

SUCCESSFUL FIGHT WITH HEAVY SNOWFALL

In spite of difficult weather conditions in the region between 9^th and 11^th January, accompanied by unprecedented volumes of snowfall, the operations at Prague Airport remained almost unaffected. More than 30 centimetres of snow fell in Prague over the weekend. Only thanks to tremendous efforts of the airport’s operational team using 17 special wide-base snow sweepers available to clear the take-off and landing runways, no flights needed to be redirected nor cancelled. Enhanced emergency service was also essential by de-icing of aircraft. Prague Airport thus succeeded to maintain fully operational in the same time when a number of European airports were forced to put a temporary ban on flights.

EASYJET TO LAUNCH NEW ROUTES TO PARIS AND AMSTERDAM

EasyJet, one of the leading low-cost airlines in Europe, announced the launch of further 21 new routes in 2010, including two additional services operating in Prague. On 28^th March, easyJet will start flying on a daily basis between Prague and Paris/Charles de Gaulle. A new daily connection between Prague and Amsterdam will be launched on 14^th May. Together with an earlier announcement of flights to Doncanster, this takes the total number of new easyJet routes to be launched this year from Prague to three, strengthening the carrier’s position within the TOP 5 airlines at Prague Airport in terms of passenger numbers. Find more at www.easyjet.com.

S7 AIRLINES’ NEW FLIGHTS TO NOVOSIBIRSK

From 30^th April, the Russian carrier S7 Airlines will launch operations on Prague-Novosibirsk route. The airline plans to fly between Prague and the largest Siberian city once a week on Fridays by an Airbus A320 aircraft. Passengers from Prague will be able to make east-bound connections to S7’s extensive network. S7 Airlines is the largest domestic carrier, serving all major cities in Russia and the rest of the CIS; expanding significantly the geographical scope of its international flights in the Asia-Pacific region. For further information please visit www.s7.ru.

DECEMBER 2009

Prague Airport’s traffic figures showed in December the best result in 2009. With an increase in passenger volumes by 7.3%, it was the most significant improvement since July 2008 when the negative impact of global economic crises started to affect traffic development at Prague Airport. The trend of growing number of handled passengers was mainly driven by higher load factors on scheduled flights. The number of movements remained in December 3.4% below the levels of the previous year.

2009 FINAL RESULTS

A more favourable development in the second half and primarily in the last two months of 2009 contributed to improvement of the overall traffic results. Last year was finally closed with an acceptable decrease by 7.8% in passenger numbers, corresponding with the averages at comparable European airports. Prague Airport welcomed the total of 11,643,366 passengers, handled 163,816 aircraft movements and 42,476 tons of air cargo. The overall number of aircraft landings and take-offs was down by 8.3%, while the cargo volumes decreased by 11.3%. Prague Airport handled in average 31,900 passengers and 449 movements daily. The busiest month was August with 1,339,938 passengers and the highest number of passengers in one day went through the airport on 16th August 2009 (48,771 passengers).

More than 50 air carriers were operating regularly at Prague Airport on scheduled flights to 130 destinations throughout the year. Passengers flying on scheduled traffic represented 88% of the market share. While the full service airlines segment declined by 5% year-on-year, low cost carriers experienced a decrease by 9.4% and charter airlines dropped by 17.7%.

A positive development was achieved in the category of passengers who use Prague Airport for transfer to connecting flights. The total of 1,339,563, representing a growth by 9.1%, is the highest number of transferring passengers in the airport’s history. The share of transferring passengers thus increased to 23% of the total number of departing passengers.

The constant popularity of travels to the UK and Germany, with over one million passengers, confirmed their leading position in the country ranking, followed by Italy, France and Spain. The busiest route was traditionally Paris/Charles de Gaulle with 550,902 passengers (+1.6%). These numbers were followed by London/Heathrow, Frankfurt, Moscow/Sheremetyevo and Amsterdam. The highest increase of passengers was achieved on routes to Tel Aviv (+13.3%), Barcelona (+5.4%) and Zurich (+5.2%).