Prague Airport flying high with profit of almost CZK 300 million last year

Almost 11 million people used the airport in 2022, twice as many as the previous year.

Expats.cz Staff ČTK

Written by Expats.cz StaffČTK Published on 28.04.2023 12:00:00 (updated on 28.03.2024) Reading time: 1 minute

Prague Airport reported a strong CZK 283 million net profit in 2022, following the easing of travel restrictions after the global Covid pandemic. 

More passengers, but still not at 2019 levels

Six million more passengers used the airport last year than in 2021, a year that saw Czechia’s largest airport make a near CZK 1 billion loss.

However, passenger numbers have still not yet reached pre-Covid-19 figures. 

“Prague Airport more than doubled the number of checked-in passengers year on year and increased its operating profit by CZK 2 billion. This is despite having fewer employees than would have been optimal."

Czech Minister of Finance Zbyněk Stanjura

The profit is especially impressive given rising energy costs nationwide, which caused the airport to spend an extra CZK 500 million. Staff and other operational costs increased by about CZK 400 million due to inflation.

In 2022, Václav Havel Prague Airport offered routes to 147 destinations, provided by 58 different carriers.

Czech Airlines, however, had a poor year. In 2022 the state air carrier transported about 150,00 passengers – in stark contrast to over 2.5 million passengers before 2020.

More development and stronger numbers expected in 2023

Czech Minister of Finance Zbyněk Stanjura said this week that he expected in 2023 to see more passengers than in 2022, and the airport to make another decent profit.

According to the chairman of the airport’s board of directors Jiří Pos, Prague Airport invested more than CZK 1.1 billion last year. "The biggest projects were the total reconstruction of Terminal 3, the taxiways, and the replacement of spare resources for the main runway," he added.

The company expects to exceed the mark of 13 million checked-in passengers this year. 

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