Parallel runway will bring an end to flying over the city

Prague - Thanks to the construction of a new parallel runway at Prague's airport, planes will stop flying over the capital, which will be a significant benefit for Prague, according to Jiří Kraus, deputy chairman of the board of Prague Airport. However, according to the mayor's deputy Petr Hlubuček (STAN), there is a risk of reduced quality of life for residents of the affected neighborhoods in the capital and surrounding municipalities. They expressed this today in a discussion organized by the initiative For Sustainable and Neighborly Prague.

After the construction of the new parallel runway, the number of movements would increase to about 260,000 takeoffs and landings per year. However, night flights would be canceled, as well as the existing cross runway, from which flights are directed towards Prague and Kladno, Kraus stated. Currently, Václav Havel Airport handles about 17 million passengers annually. Two years ago, there were 150,000 takeoffs and landings in a year, with the highest number recorded in 2008, at about 178,000.

"Today, 4 to 5 percent of air traffic is over Prague 6 in a normal year. To put it into perspective, full operations mean 50 days a year. Prague would be deprived of this (thanks to the construction of the parallel runway)," Kraus said. According to him, the simultaneous operation of two independent runways will also increase the hourly capacity of the airport, which means that some flights will not need to be denied as they have been so far. The airport is currently capable of making a maximum of 46 movements per hour, he added.

Hlubuček criticized the runway's proximity to residential areas and the valid environmental impact assessment EIA, which uses data from 2005. According to him, the construction does not meet the needs of today and the changes that have occurred in society. The construction plan, according to the deputy, will bring the airport 1.5 kilometers closer to densely populated areas of Prague and its center, negatively affecting the lives of several thousand other residents.

According to Hlubuček, increasing the airport's capacity will raise the number of tourists in the city. The same was mentioned by Vít Masare from the initiative For Sustainable and Neighborly Prague and initiator of the petition "Do not demolish or expand the airport." According to Hlubuček, there were at least eight million tourists in the capital in 2019. However, Kraus stated that only a part of them arrived in Prague by air, and limiting the airport's development is not a solution to the problem of excess tourists in the metropolis. He added that about nine million people flew to Prague in 2019. About half of them were foreigners, out of which approximately 60 percent were heading to Prague.

The investments that Prague Airport plans to undertake are expected to total 55 billion crowns. In addition to constructing a new runway, it wants to expand the second terminal for 16 billion crowns, which currently serves flights to Schengen area countries. The work should be completed by 2028.

The construction of the new runway was approved by the Prague City Council last December 2020. It was supported by coalition representatives from TOP 09 and opposition representatives from ODS and ANO, while the coalition parties Pirates, Prague Together, and STAN were against it. The adopted resolution includes a set of conditions for approval. Among them are, for example, the expedited construction of a railway to the airport, the provision of additional documentation, and an assessment of the construction's impact by the government and the airport, or the cancellation of night operations after the new runway is completed. Entities like the Chamber of Commerce have expressed agreement with the construction, stating it is essential for further airport development and thus the entire Czech economy. Mayors of Nebušice and Suchdol, representatives of the Academy of Sciences, and Prague senators have taken a negative stance towards the construction, among others.