The prestigious Routes Europe Awards 2026 are heading to Prague. Prague Airport won the award in the category of airports handling 5 to 20 million passengers a year and, for the first time in history, also triumphed as the “Overall Winner”. The award, which is voted on by the airlines themselves, reflects the level of cooperation with carriers, the development of air routes, and the marketing activities of airports.
In the category of European airports handling 5 to 20 million passengers a year, Prague Airport beat the airports in Larnaca, Thessaloniki, Vilnius and Glasgow. As the "Overall Winner", Prague Airport also succeeded in the overall assessment of this year's European Routes event. “Amidst substantial competition from European airports, both awards represent a significant achievement which we value immensely. We consider it as confirmation of our long-term strategy, which is based on fair and open cooperation with our partners and on actively seeking attractive business opportunities regarding the development of air connections. In doing so, we focus not only on opening up new destinations, but also on increasing seat capacity and flight frequencies on existing routes, thereby strengthening our airport’s accessibility and competitiveness in the long term. We thank all our airline partners for their cooperation, trust and recognition. We greatly appreciate this collaboration and see it as a commitment to the future so that we can continue to strengthen mutual relations with full dedication and determination and implement projects that will deliver tangible results,” says Jiří Vyskoč, Executive Director of Aviation Business Development at Prague Airport.
Last year, Prague Airport supported the launch of 46 new routes, including 24 new destinations. Furthermore, 12 new airlines commenced operations at Prague Airport, bringing the total number of operating air carriers there to 89. Flight frequencies or seat capacities were successfully increased on more than 55 existing routes, resulting in an overall year-on-year capacity increase of 7%. These results confirm the growing confidence of airlines in the Prague market. In 2026, nearly 200 destinations are accessible from Václav Havel Airport Prague.
Prague Airport also continued to implement its strategy of developing long-haul flight connections. 2025 brought the launch of routes to Seoul (Asiana Airlines), Abu Dhabi (Etihad Airways), Toronto (Air Canada) and Sharjah (Air Arabia). Announcements were also made regarding new long-haul routes set to commence operations over the course of this year: these include routes to Philadelphia (American Airlines) and Taipei (STARLUX Airlines).
Prague Airport has won the Routes Europe Awards in its category for the second time in its history, having recorded its first European triumph was in 2012 in Tallinn. In the past – specifically in 2013 and 2016 – it also received special recognition as one of the highly commended finalists in its category. In addition, representatives of Prague Airport’s aviation business have celebrated victory at the global airport ranking Routes World Awards four time in total.
This year’s award was presented during the Routes Europe 2026 international forum, which took place from 18 to 20 May in Rimini, Italy. The conference brought together key players in the development of air transport: airports, airlines, tourism support organisations, etc.