1.2 Million More Passengers Pass through Gates of Prague Airport in First Half of 2017

During the first half of the year, Václav Havel Airport Prague has again recorded record growth. In the first half of 2017, Václav Havel Airport Prague handled a total of 6,764,752 passengers while during the same period of the previous year, the airport serviced almost 1.2 million fewer passengers. The greatest number of passengers used direct connections around Europe and a big year-on-year growth was recorded on flights between Prague and Africa and also on flights to the Near and Far East. 

“Year-on-year, the airport handled 21% more passengers during the first half of the year. The outlook for the rest of the year also looks very optimistic. Based on the most up-to-date figures, it is expected that the overall increase in handled passengers could exceed 15% in 2017. This month also shows that the increase in passenger numbers during the main summer months will most probably exceed the original expectation. The reason is the year-on-year growth of 14% in the seat capacity offered by air carriers and a higher load factor than that achieved by air carriers during past summer months. This trend has continued since September 2016. The current aircraft load factor approaches 80% on average, which is very high. If the airport continues the successful trend during the rest of the year, we could approach the 15 million handled passengers a year mark,” Václav Řehoř, Chairman of the Prague Airport Board of Directors, commented.

23 June 2017 was the busiest day of the first half of the year, with 64,008 passengers handled, which is even a little more than on the record day of 2016 (17 July 2016 with 52,616 serviced passengers). It can be expected, however, that this year’s record will be broken during the traditionally most popular summer months.