Flight From London Prague

Prague Ruzyně Airport (Czech: Letiště Praha-Ruzyně , , (IATA: PRG , ICAO: LKPR ), serves Prague, Czech Republic. Located 10 kilometres (6 mi) west of the city centre, the airport is a hub for Czech Airlines. It was opened on 5 April 1937. Prague-Ruzyně is the biggest airport in the Czech Republic, and with 12.7 million passengers in 2008, the busiest one within the new EU member states. It was named the best airport in Central and Eastern Europe by Skytrax in 2005 and 2007.

Ruzyně Today

Most flights depart Ruzyně Airport from the North Terminals (Terminal 1 and 2). The South Terminals (Terminal 3 and 4) 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. In 2007 the number of passengers rose to 12,440,000, and the owners of the airport predicted further growth for 2008 with more than 13 million passengers. Preliminary data for 2008 showed 12,700,000 passengers.

The airport contains two runways in service: 06/24 and 13/31. Former runway 04/22 is not used any more. 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's city centre involves taking the bus number 119 to Dejvická metro station, and transferring on to the green metro line (Line A), or Tram there, or express number 100 to Zličín metro station (yellow Line B) farther from the city centre. A typical trip takes about 40 minutes. After midnight when the metro line is closed, night bus number 510 runs from the airport, offering 4 transfer points to centre-bound trams en-route. Also number 179 can be used for a longer but more interesting travel to a Prague Metro station (yellow Line B).

Since 14 December 2008, the bus line AE (Airport Express) also provides nonstop service between Terminals North 1 and North 2, and the Prague Main railway station every day from 05:00 to 22:00 H, leaving every half hour.

History

Czechoslovakia belonged, and Czech Republic belongs, to the leading European pioneers of the civil aviation, and became over time a part of the most state-of-the-art continental transportation system. The Prague – Ruzyně Airport began operation on 5 April 1937, but Czechoslovak civil aviation history started at the military airport in Prague - Kbely in 1919. Due to insufficient capacity of the Kbely airport in the middle of the 1930s, the Government decided to develop a new State Civil Airport in Ruzyně. One of the major awards the Prague Ruzyně Airport received 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 (nowadays known as Terminal 4) 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 airport has excellent location both with respect to short distance from the centre 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.

The political and economic changes affected the seventy years of existence of the Prague-Ruzyně Airport. Some new air transportation companies and institutions were founded and some ceased operation since then. Ten entities were responsible for airport administration over time, including the new construction and development. Until the 1990s, 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 began modernisation on an ongoing basis and is gradually one of the top European airports.

The airport was used in the James Bond film, Casino Royale. The airport, along with Virgin Atlantic Airbus A340-600, depicts a scene that actually takes place in the film at Miami International Airport.

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, Prague Airport (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 was 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. However, because of plenty of legal problems and protests of people who live close to the airport premises, the construction has not yet begun. Despite these problems, the project has support from the government, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2014. animation of the new runway and more info.

It will be over 3,500 metres (11,483 ft) long. Located 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 under bad weather conditions.

Prague Airport 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 reorganising the air traffic space around the airport, and shifting the traffic corridors after putting the two parallel runways into service. The vision of heavy 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.

The construction of a railway connection between the airport and Prague city centre is also in the planning stage. According to the most recent plans, the construction should begin in 2011, and the operations should commence in 2014. The track will be served by express trains with special fares, connecting non-stop the airport with the city centre, and local trains fully integrated into Prague integrated transit system.

Terminals

Ruzyně Airport has two main passenger terminals, two general aviation terminals, as well as a cargo facility.

Airlines and destinations

Charter flights

Cargo airlines

See also

• List of airports in the Czech Republic

References

1. ^ ^{a b} EAD Basic
2. ^ Letiště Praha, s.p. - Významné mezníky a ocenění
3. ^ Hong Kong named best airport in the world by international travellers
4. ^ Official statistics for 2005 PDF
5. ^ Pražské letiště loni odbavilo rekordní počet pasažérů
6. ^ Pražské letiště mělo loni nadstandardní zisk a odbavilo rekordně pasažérů
7. ^ Petr Švec, "Letištní expres: cesta za 120 korun" in Mladá fronta DNES, February 12, 2009

External links

• Ruzyně Airport - official homepage]
• Airport Prague - Photogallery
• Airport Prague - Airport maps
• Architects' page about the building of the North Terminal 2

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