In April 2020, Prague Airport handled 5031 passengers, which means a year-on-year decrease of 99.6%, and described it as unprecedented in the results report. This is due to the coronavirus pandemic and associated travel restrictions.
Last April, 1.39 million passengers passed through the airport, so last year, about 2.5 hours from the whole month was enough to achieve the result for the whole month this year. Compared to last April, the number of aircraft movements decreased by a total of 90.06%. A total of 1213 flights landed or took off in Prague during this period, including all scheduled flights, repatriation, cargo or private flights.
The April results are not a surprise; they could be expected due to minimal traffic. March numbers were also affected by the pandemic, but not so dramatically.
The decline in overall operating results over the past month is the result of subdued air traffic around the world due to the spread of COVID-19. In April, most passengers were handled between Prague and Seoul, Doha and Minsk. In the case of Seoul, these are passengers traveling onboard repatriation flights, and in the case of Doha and Minsk, passengers on scheduled direct flights.
Václav Havel Prague Airport is still open for all take-offs and landings, and traffic is gradually being resumed for passengers on some scheduled routes. For example, there is a regular flight to Amsterdam by KLM, which is available to passengers once a day from 4 May 2020. There is also a direct flight to Düsseldorf, with another Eurowings flight scheduled for this week. As of today, Czech Airlines has resumed several direct flights, specifically to Amsterdam, Frankfurt am Main and Paris. In the following days, CSA will also resume flights to Stockholm and Bucharest. Lufthansa also confirmed its return to Prague on June 1 with a flight to Frankfurt.
“At the moment, we have not confirmed from other airlines that, in addition to these routes, other flights from Prague should be resumed in the coming days. However, the situation can change quickly,” added Kateřina Pavlíková, a spokeswoman for Prague Airport.