Airport capacity increase

Together with additional benefits that the enlarged runway system will facilitate, the construction of a parallel runway also appears to be an optimal solution for the ever growing demand for Prague’s airport capacity.

Prague Airport is one of the largest air hubs in Central and Eastern Europe and at the same time an airport considered to be one of the most modern ones in Europe. Without further development, it will no longer be able to satisfy the challenging needs of its clients and compete with the other important players in the region. At peak times, the current runway system is already used virtually up to its maximum capacity.

Currently, the weakest side of Prague’s airport in regards to capacity appears to be its runway system - at peak times used virtually up to its maximum capacity. Despite the joint efforts of Prague Airport, Air Traffic Control of the Czech Republic, Civil Aviation Authority and pilots of CSA and Travel Service that managed through additional constructions and procedure changes to increase its hourly capacity by 30% (from 34 movements to 46 with the option to increase it to the maximum of 48 movements), the originally built runway system has already reached its operational maximum. Construction of the new parallel runway thus remains the only solution to the issue of runway system capacity.

Air transport in the Czech Republic is still at one of the lowest levels in Europe when compared to the number of inhabitants which is why all prognoses prepared by international institutions such as Eurocontrol, ICAO or IATA forecast an above average growth in the future.

Average annual growth between the years 2007 – 2030 (conservative scenario by EUROCONTROL)

Since 1963, when the current airport runway system was launched, the number of take-offs and landings more than quadrupled. While at the beginning of the 1960s, Prague Airport annually serviced 1 million passengers on 45 thousand take-offs and landings, in the year 2008, the reported number was 12.63 million serviced passengers on 179 thousand take-offs and landings.

The prime benefit of the parallel runway is that it will enable further growth of civil aviation in the Czech Republic and bring it at least to the level standard in similarly developed European countries such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway or Finland.  In line with the global growth of air transport demand and the appeal of Prague and the Czech Republic, it is expected to record a gradually growing demand tendency in the future. EUROCONTROL has estimated a 4% annual growth of air transport in the Czech Republic on average.

However, any further development of the airport will only be possible if the growth can be managed from a capacity point of view. The only option for further growth of the largest Czech airport is the construction of the new parallel runway. The new runway system consisting of two independently operated parallel runways should fully satisfy the ever growing capacity demand on both the passenger and the airline side for at least a few decades to come.