Prague Airport Honey Wins Gold Medal Again

Prague Airport regularly competes in the Czech Honey contest. This year, it was in the position of the previous year’s winner and wanting to retain the Gold Medal. Five criteria of honey quality are evaluated in the contest: physical and chemical properties, mandatory label information, correctness of the label including additional data, and sensory and overall aesthetic impressions.

Beekeeping was established at Václav Havel Airport Prague in 2011 as a means of air quality biomonitoring. Prague joined European airports which had started using biomonitoring earlier, for example, Munich, Hamburg, Dresden and Paris. Currently, Prague Airport keeps six bee hives with up to 350 thousand bees in the summer months. This year, bees have produced almost 80kg of honey. However, honey production is not the primary reason for keeping bees at the airport. “As bees cover a several-mile radius when searching for food, we can get samples from the airport’s surrounding area. The collected honey and pollen are subjected to chemical testing, the results of which provide us with information regarding the potential presence of various substances in the airport’s vicinity,” Soňa Hykyšová, Prague Airport Environment Protection Director, explains the principle of biomonitoring using honeybees. 

The collected honey and samples of honeycomb pollen are submitted for examination to the accredited laboratory of the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague and to the Beekeeping Research Institute, where the samples’ quality is assessed according to the Czech Beekeepers Association quality standard No. 1/1999 for Czech Honey. “Examinations performed in the past have confirmed good air quality in the airport’s surrounding area. The highly-valued honey is the result of several years’ work of our team of beekeepers and their exemplary care of our bees,” added Soňa Hykyšová.

Honey from the Prague Airport’s production is not designed for commercial sale but serves biomonitoring purposes. It is also used as interesting memorabilia for Prague Airport partners and is regularly tested by visitors of various events for the general public, organised or co-hosted by Prague Airport. Recently, the honey was offered to citizens of airport surrounding municipalities during a fun and informative afternoon hosted by Prague Airport.