The Prague Airport Authority is preparing for the regular maintenance of the runway system before the onset of winter. Night operations will be halted on the secondary runway during the period when the main runway is temporarily closed. On 8th September, the Prague Airport Authority will commence its regular maintenance of the takeoff and landing runways. Initially (in the planned period from 8.9. to 19.10.2008), secondary runway RWY 13/31 will be closed. The main runway RWY 06/24 will also be closed to aircraft in the period from 20.10. to 31.10. 2008 and all operations will be transferred to the secondary runway. The autumn preparation of the runways is carried out every year before the onset of the winter operating season so that the runways are ready for winter and so that the safety of the air operations is guaranteed. In winter, the airport runways are not only loaded by the impact forces of the aircraft during takeoff and landing, but also by the weather conditions and the use of antifreeze liquids. 

“The repairs to the runways only take up the shortest possible amount of time necessary for the realisation of high-quality maintenance and they take place during the full operation of the airport’s remaining infrastructure. Within the framework of this year’s regular autumn closure, the surface of the secondary runway will be repaired, the rubber accretions will be removed from the area of the contact zone and the runway markings will be renewed. As well as this, we will also reconstruct taxiways TWY F and G which are in close proximity to runway RWY 13/31,” stated Dalibor Štáhlavský MSc, the Executive Manager for Property Development and Administration at the Prague Airport Authority and he added: “We have optimised the planning of the runway closure in order to reduce the impact of the closure on the densely populated area in the vicinity of the secondary runway as much as possible.”

In accordance with an agreement between the Prague Airport Authority and the representatives of the surrounding municipalities and boroughs on the permanent cessation of night-time operations on secondary runway RWY 13/31, no night flights will be planned from midnight to 5:00 am in the period from 20th to 31st October. The only exception will involve any flights in emergency situations where it is necessary to use the runway in order to save human lives and any delayed flights with departures originally planned for the period before midnight, but only if they occur at the latest by 1.00 am. If a flight planned for before midnight is delayed to such an extent that it cannot takeoff or land before 1.00 am, if will be moved to a time after five o’clock in the morning.

The course of the work has been coordinated with the Air Traffic Control of the Czech Republic in such a way so that its influence on the airport’s operations will be minimal. The representatives of the municipalities and boroughs in the environs of the airport, the representatives of the citizens’ associations of individuals affected by the airport’s operations and the appropriate hygiene station have been informed of the work sufficiently in advance.

The dates for the repairs to the runway system:
From 8.9. to 19.10. -  repairs to the secondary runway RWY 13/31.
From 20.10. to 31.10. -  repairs to the main runway RWY 06/24 – operations transferred to the secondary runway.

About Prague Airport:
In 2007, it processed almost 12.5 million passengers, this year it is expected to exceed the level of 13 million passengers processed during a single year and in all probability Prague Airport will be used by 15 million passengers annually by 2010. Passengers at Prague Airport can choose from a range of 54 airlines which connect Prague to 124 destinations throughout the world with direct flights. The total number of airlines active at Prague Airport includes 13 low-cost airlines. There are also 6 freight operators (the information applies to the current summer season). The Prague Airport Administration is owned by the state of the Czech Republic and it is the operator of Prague’s international civil airport. The founder of the civil international airport’s operator is the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic.

Source: Airport Prague
For further information about Airport Prague, click here