Václav Havel Airport Prague

Václav Havel Airport Prague is Central Europe's busiest airport outside Vienna and Warsaw, handling 16.3M passengers (2024) from a site that has doubled its throughput since 2014. Its position at 1,247 ft (380 m) elevation — one of the highest of any major European hub — sits 17 km west of Prague's historic core on the Bohemian Plateau, a geography that gives it reliable approach corridors but also some of the coldest winter operations of any Category 1 airport in the European Union. SmartWings (the rebranded Czech national carrier after ČSA's 2021 collapse) operates its primary base here, but PRG has intentionally cultivated a multi-carrier model rather than a flag-carrier monoculture: Ryanair, Wizz Air, easyJet, Lufthansa Group, Air France-KLM, Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Korean Air all run substantial operations. The 95-airline count is among the highest in Central Europe, serving 180 destinations on 313 scheduled routes, with particularly strong links to the former Soviet sphere that pivoted after 2022 toward Gulf and Asian connectivity. Two runways handle movements: primary 06/24 at 12,189 ft (3,715 m) and crosswind 12/30 at 10,663 ft (3,250 m). A third parallel runway has been in planning since 2005 and remains politically contested. Terminal 1 handles non-Schengen and long-haul traffic, including the small but growing Asia-Pacific bank; Terminal 2 serves Schengen flights; both share airside and are connected landside by a covered concourse. A capacity-doubling expansion approved in 2023 will add a new Terminal 2 satellite by 2031, targeting 25–30M annual passengers and positioning Prague as a third-tier European connecting hub behind Vienna and Warsaw.