Parallel runway

To assure further development of air transport, it is necessary to increase the runway capacity atPrague– Ruzyne airport that services about 93 % of all Czech travellers. Since the 1990s, the number of passengers and flights handled in Ruzyne has already been significantly growing. In the last ten years alone, the volume of transport has tripled. At the beginning of 2006, a new Terminal 2 launched its operations. This step enabled a temporary increase in the so called terminal passenger handling capacity from a long-term perspective. The runway system of the airport, quite to the contrary, has virtually not changed since the 1960s despite the sharp increase in the amount of handled passengers and serviced flights. Thus at peak times, the system does not suffice and without an extension will become the main obstacle to the expected growth of civil aviation.

The concept to build atPrague’s airport a parallel runway to the existing main runway 06/24 is not a new one. The plan to build a parallel runway in due course was already in place when the current main runway RWY 06/24 was built in the 1960s. At the beginning of the 1970s, the plan was made part of the land use planning documentation ofPrague. The interest of travellers in visitingPragueand theCzechRepublichas not decreased; the airport expects the number of handled passengers and aircraft to yet increase in the future. However, the increased demand for air transport will only be possible to meet upon construction of the planned parallel runway. Shall a large part of the air transport demand remain unsatisfied, tourists and investors will focus their interest on other states.

The parallel runway will:

• Significantly increase the runway system capacity
• Allow to keep the passenger demand for air transport satisfied
• Facilitate the tourist trade growth in theCzechRepublicand thus increase demand among the tertiary sphere industries – accommodation, catering, retail, cultural sector, etc.
• Increase the aircraft operation safety – aircraft will land on one runway and take-off from the other
• Its construction and consequent launch of operations will help create 17,000 new jobs by the year 2020 namely inPragueand Central Bohemian region
• Decrease operations of the side runway which, when operated, subjects about 200,000 citizens ofPragueand its surroundings to a noise burden
• Allow for more efficient and environmental friendly operations of two parallel runways
• Significantly increase Czech GDP and bring significant sums of money to public budgets.