Prague Airport's Board Votes the Departure Charge Up Six Per Cent, to CZK 723

The board of Letiště Praha has voted to raise the charge an airline pays for every passenger departing from Terminal 1 or Terminal 2 by six per cent. Zdopravy.cz reports the vote as unanimous and gives the figures precisely: CZK 682 today, CZK 723 after the increase, a rise of 41 crowns. The new price list is being prepared for the period beginning 28 March 2027. Czech Television, which broke the decision in an interview with the chairman, put the same change in round numbers — roughly 680 crowns now, about forty crowns more.

Radomír Lašák gave the reason in one line.

On the board we approved six per cent as one man. We have to react to energy prices.

Radomír Lašák, chairman of the board, Letiště Praha

Two years of no increase, and a figure for inflation

The rate going up has stood since the end of March 2024, when it rose from CZK 649. The airport's own case for the increase is that charges have lagged: it says airport fees rose only five per cent between 2021 and 2024 while their real value fell, and puts cumulative inflation across 2023 to 2025 at 16.2 per cent. On that account this is not a step change but a partial catch-up on costs already incurred.

There is also something to spend it on. ČT24 reports that construction of a new multi-storey car park at the airport starts next year, and that this is part of why the management needs money for further development. The broadcaster notes that airport charges are most often between ten and forty per cent of a ticket price, depending on how far the flight goes and what aircraft flies it — on its own example, a return to Rome in mid-April next year costing about CZK 3,600 carries roughly 680 crowns of passenger tax.

The sequencing question

Lašák told Czech Television the increase first has to be discussed with the airlines. Zdopravy.cz sets that against the airport's own website and its published invitation, which had the formal consultation on the draft price list taking place on 16 September — before the interview. The outlet does not resolve the discrepancy and neither will we; it is the one point on which the official account and the published timetable do not line up.

Opposition to the rise arrived before the number did. Martin Kupka, chair of ODS and a former transport minister, said on 24 September that his information from inside the airport was that the new management was preparing a "sharp increase in airport taxes", and that higher costs would show up in ticket prices.

Zdopravy.cz also points to the precedent airlines reach for. Ryanair has responded to rising charges elsewhere by withdrawing capacity: this year it announced the closure of its Thessaloniki base for the winter season, about 500,000 seats and ten routes, blaming Fraport Greece's fees for being 66 per cent higher than before the pandemic. How Europe's largest carrier reacts at Ruzyně is, as the outlet puts it, still being established.

Whose decision this is

Lašák joined the board with effect from 1 August and was elected its chairman on 3 August, replacing Jiří Pos. His arrival drew criticism from unions and part of the opposition, and in July five union organisations at the airport declared a strike alert over his selection. Zdopravy.cz reports they are not yet considering lifting it, because they are still waiting for his plans. The price list for March 2027 is the first of them to become public.