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Václav Havel Airport Prague

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Template:Airport frame Template:Airport title Template:Airport image Template:Airport infobox Template:Runway title Template:Runway Template:Runway Template:Runway Template:Airport end frame Ruzyně International Airport (IATA: PRG, ICAO: LKPR) serves Prague, Czech Republic. Located 10 km from the city centre, the airport is a hub for Czech Airlines. It was opened on April 5 1937.

Most flights leave Ruzyně International Airport from the North Terminal. The South Terminals, South and South2, handle a few irregular flights, as well as VIP Flights, special flights and small aircraft.

In 2004, the airport served 9.7 million passengers, in 2005 nearly 10.8 million and in 2006 11.6 million.

The airport contains two runways in service: 06/24 and 13/31. Former runway 04/22 is not used anymore. The most used runway is 24 due to the prevailing western winds. Runway 31 is also used often. Runway 06 is used rarely while runway 13 is used only exceptionally.

Public transport to and from Prague city center involves taking the bus number 119 to Dejvická metro station and transferring on to the green metro line (Line A) there or express number 100 to Zličín metro station (yellow Line B) farther from the city centre. A typical journey takes about 40 minutes. There are also other bus services that run after midnight when the metro line is not in operation.

From December 11 2005 also the bus line AE (=Airport Express): RW Station Holešovice - Terminal North 1 - Terminal North 2 - AP Ruzyně; goes every day, from 5.00 to 22.00 H in the interval of 30 minutes; special tariff: 45 CZK.

Concourse B on Christmas time

History

Czechoslovakia, today Czech Republic, belonged to the leading European pioneers of the civil aviation and became over time a part of the most state-of-art continental transportation system. One of the major awards of Prague Ruzyně Airport include Diploma and Gold Medal granted in 1937 at the occasion of the International Art and Technical Exhibition in Paris (Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne) also known as Paris 1937 World's Fair for the technical conception of the central airport, primarily the architecture of check-in building designed by architect Ing. A. Beneš. Other awards were granted for modernization during individual airport development phases. All these facts have been increasing the interest of carriers in using Prague airport.

The Prague – Ruzyně Airport began operation on April 5, 1937, this date being the very beginning of the Czechoslovak airport history. The airport has excellent location both with respect to short distance from the center of Prague and within the European area. Moreover, the Ruzyně fields provide opportunities for further expansion of the airport according to the increasing capacity demand. The airport serves as a hub of the trans-European airport network.

Clearly, the political and economic changes affected the seventy years of existence of the Prague-Ruzyně Airport. Some new air companies and institutions were founded and some ceased operation. Ten entities were responsible for airport administration over time, including the new construction and development. Until 90s of the last century, there were two or three decade gaps before the major modernization of the Prague-Ruzyně Airport began in order to match the current capacity requirements. Since then, the Airport is being modernized on an ongoing basis and is gradually becoming one of the top European airports.

Further development

As the capacity of the airport has been reaching its limit for the last couple of years (as of 2005), further development of the airport is being considered. Besides regular repairs of the existing runways, the Airport Prague (Czech: Letiště Praha s.p.) began the preparations for building a new runway, parallel to the 06/24 runway. The construction with estimated costs of CZK 5-7 billion is scheduled to begin in 2007 and the new runway marked 06R/24L (also called the BIS runway) is to be put into service in 2010. It will be over 3500 m long and will lie about 1500 m south-east of the present main runway. The 24L runway will be equipped with a category III ILS allowing landing and taking off even under very aggravated weather conditions.

The Airport Prague states that besides increasing the airport capacity, the new runway system will greatly reduce the noise level in some densely inhabited areas of Prague. This should be achieved by reorganizing the air traffic space around the airport and shifting the traffic corridors after putting the two parallel runways into service. However, the vision of heavier traffic raised many protests from the suburban communities directly surrounding the airport. On 6 November 2004, local referenda were held in two Prague suburbs - Nebušice and Přední Kopanina - giving official support to the local authorities for active opposition against the construction of the parallel runway.

Terminals

Terminal "NORTH 1"

Inter-Continental flights including flights to the United Kingdom: North America (USA, Canada), Middle-East, Africa and Asia

Terminal "NORTH 2"

Flights within the EU Schengen Agreement member countries and other European destinations.

Terminal "SOUTH 1"

VIP and private flights. Official State visits or prominent occasions. Charter flights.

Terminal "SOUTH 2"

VIP and private flights. Official State visits or prominent occasions. Charter flights.

Airlines

See also

List of airports in Czech Republic

References

  1. Official statistics for 2005

External links

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