The number of travelers passing through Prague’s Vaclav Havel airport rose 1.6 percent in 2013 to 11.1 million, with the number of local passengers rising a full 5.68 percent. Czech Airlines continues to be the leading carrier, with nearly 20 percent of all passengers, but the days of the company commanding over 50 percent of all flights are gone.
Low-cost airlines are showing the greatest increase, with over one-third of all flights. Lufthansa’s fourth-place ranking is an example, as its position on the market has fallen after the low-cost airline GermanWings took over its Dusseldorf route. Pavel Němec of HRG Czech Republic, a corporate travel advisory, says companies no longer have a problem sending their staff on low-cost flights. After the crisis, he told idnes.cz, “the key thing was price, so if the airline had a direct flight with good times and good prices, no one even discussed it. Then everyone realized that with flights of less than two hours, it doesn’t matter.”
