Prague Airport Obtains Non-Final Zoning Decision for Parallel Runway Construction

“The Building Authority has significantly advanced the parallel runway project with this decision. Our expert team is ready to continue to actively work with all relevant authorities and stakeholders to ensure that all conditions and requirements arising from the zoning decision are met in the following stages of the project. It is essential for us that the project preparation phase is in accordance with all legal, environmental, and safety standards,” Jiří Kraus, Vice Chairman of the Prague Airport Board of Directors, said.

Prague Airport considers the parallel runway project to be essential, especially because:

• It will enable night-time operational closure of the entire airport from midnight to half past five in the morning, thanks to higher capacity during the day.
• The parallel runway will not be in operation from ten in the evening to six in the morning.
• Two runways (one primarily for departures and the other primarily for arrivals) will shorten aircraft waiting times in the air and taxi times on the ground, thereby reducing emissions and noise.
• Two parallel runways will contribute to even higher operational safety and reliability of the entire airport.
• The current secondary runway will cease to be used, which will bring significant relief to densely populated parts of Prague and the Kladno region.

The parallel runway project is part of a long-term strategic development plan for Prague Airport’s infrastructure, the preparation of which has been underway for almost twenty years. The location of the new runway respects zoning plans dating back to the 1960s. Although the project has been included in the development documents of the capital and the state from the beginning, its preparation has been repeatedly slowed down by legal disputes, new legislative requirements, and the need to supplement or revise the documentation according to, among other things, the comments of the affected authorities and the public. The renewal of the zoning proceedings was enabled by the confirmation of the validity of the Spatial Development Principles of the Central Bohemian Region in February 2023. Now, with the issuance of the zoning decision, another stage of preparation leading to the implementation of a key component of the airport’s infrastructure, which is essential for its overall modernisation, has started.