Prague Airport has received the green light for a parallel runway. The new runway is intended to make air traffic more efficient and reduce the impact on residents in Prague and Kladno.
Prague’s Václav Havel Airport has taken an important step towards modernisation: Today, 4 December 2025, the Building Authority of the Central Bohemia Region granted the provisional building permit for a new parallel runway. The project is considered a central part of the airport’s long-term development.
“With this decision, the parallel runway project moves forward significantly. Our expert team will continue to work actively with all relevant authorities and stakeholders to ensure that all conditions and requirements of the building permit are met in the next project phases. It is crucial for us that the project preparation is fully in line with legal, environmental, and safety regulations,” emphasises Jiří Kraus, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Letiště Praha.
The airport highlights the various advantages of the project. The parallel runway will allow the entire airport to be closed to night operations between midnight and 5:30 a.m., as daytime capacity for departures and arrivals will be significantly increased. The new runway itself will not be used between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. By operating two parallel runways – one primarily for departures, the other for arrivals – both waiting times in the air and taxiing times on the ground are reduced, leading to lower emissions and noise. In addition, the decommissioning of the existing secondary runway will ease pressure on densely populated areas in Prague and the surrounding Kladno region.
The next phase of preparation begins with the newly granted building permit
The parallel runway is part of a long-term strategic infrastructure project, the preparation of which has been ongoing for nearly two decades. The planned location of the new runway is based on urban planning that dates back to the 1960s. Although the project has been embedded in city and state development plans from the outset, repeated court proceedings, new legal requirements, and necessary additions and revisions of documentation in response to authority and citizen comments have repeatedly delayed its implementation.
The resumption of the approval process was made possible by the confirmation of the validity of the spatial planning principles in February 2023. With the newly granted building permit, the next phase of preparation begins – a decisive step towards the comprehensive modernisation of Prague Airport.
