Czech airspace has been growing increasingly crowded in recent years. In 2018, air traffic controllers reported the highest ever number of flights over the Czech Republic, the Czech News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Photo: Jan Groh, CC BY-SA 3.0

The number of take-offs, landings and flyovers in 2018 increased by 6.9 percent on the previous year to 912,815 airplanes. On average, Czech airspace was used by 2,500 planes a day. According to Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic, air traffic in the country is currently one of the densest in Europe.

Last year, Czech air traffic controllers took over some flights from their German colleagues, who were dealing with capacity limits. During the summer season, around 400 flights a day were transferred from Germany to neighbouring countries, including the Czech Republic.

“Our air traffic controllers have successfully dealt with the increase in air traffic while maintaining a highest level of security. At the same time, they managed to ease Germany’s overburdened air space and contributed to improving the European system of air traffic control, head of ŘLP Jan Klas told the Czech News Agency.

According to estimates, some 135 million passengers flew over the Czech Republic last year. July was the busiest month, with over 97,600 recorded flights. The densest traffic was around Prague’s Václav Havel Airport, which recorded over 155,000 flights, an increase by 4.8 percent on 2017.

The overall number of incoming and outgoing flight on the country’s airports controlled by ŘLP (including Prague, Brno, Ostrava and Karlovy Vary) reached 234,769.

The biggest customer using Czech airspace was German air carrier Lufthansa, followed by Emirates, Ryanair and Qatar airways. In 2017, the state-owned company ŘLP increased its turnover by five percent to a record 4.19 billion crowns. At the moment, there are some 230 air traffic controllers operating air traffic over the Czech Republic.