Prague Airport unveils expanded summer schedule with new connections

Prague Airport has unveiled its summer flight schedule set to commence at the end of March, and it features an impressive array of new destinations and increased flight capacities. New direct flights from Prague starting next week will include Astana, Tallinn, Florence, and Verona, alongside popular holiday spots such as Brindisi, Izmir, La Palma, and Ponta Delgada.

Other new destinations passengers can reach directly from Prague this summer season include the United Kingdom's East Midlands, Dubai World Central, Chișinău, Poznań, and Tashkent.

With a total of 68 carriers offering services to 167 destinations this summer season, Prague Airport is nearing almost 90 percent of the capacity of its record 2019, highlighting a robust resurgence in air travel to and from the Czech capital.

In addition to the new direct flights to European destinations, Prague Airport is also aiming to increase its service to long-haul routes catering to inbound tourism and business travelers, with discussions now underway.

“Long-haul routes to Asia and North America remain a priority for the further development of air connections," notes Jiří Pos, Chairman of the Prague Airport Board of Directors, through a press release.

"We are currently negotiating with air carriers the options of launching regular connections to Hanoi, Beijing, Delhi, Bangkok, and New York. All these destinations have their business potential in the inbound tourism segment and are also of interest from the point of view of holiday travelers, business clientele, and cargo transport.”

Prague Airport's summer schedule also boasts additional flight frequencies on over thirty routes, with notable increases in connections to major hubs such as London, Antalya, Paris, Amsterdam, and Milan.

Qatar Airways will increase its weekly flights from Prague to Doha tenfold, and Korean Air will reintroduce four weekly flights to Seoul. The introduction of new carriers like Qanot Sharq Airlines, SCAT Airlines, FlyOne, Arkia, and KM Malta further diversifies the airport's offerings.

A detailed map of all destinations currently served from Prague Airport can be found at the airport's official website. The airport expects to surpass its record-high 2019 service by next year or early 2026.

“We expect to handle over 16 million passengers throughout the course of this year," adds Jiří Vyskoč, Prague Airport's aviation business development executive director.

"However, due to the war in Ukraine, we are still over one and a half million passengers short and lack sixteen destinations from the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Belarus, where operations are currently disrupted. If we factor this into our calculations, we are technically speaking at 100 percent of the 2019 figures.”

Airport passengers can also expect to pay a little more when traveling from Prague this summer. Despite inflation, Prague Airport did not increase its passenger charges in 2023, but along with the new summer schedule this year comes a 5.8 percent increase in departing passenger fees from CZK 659 to CZK 697. According to airport officials, however, this rate is still below average among popular European destinations.