The Prague Post
http://www.aaaradiotaxi.cz/index.php?xSET=lang&xLANG=2
July 4th, 2008
Reader's SurveyNEW     Endowment Fund     Book of Lists ONLINE      Reservations      Classifieds    Subscriptions
Prague accommodation
Prague Art & Antiques Prague Art Prague Antiques

Home » Archives » Business

Ruzyně defends costly closure

Late-arriving winter left main airport crippled for 29 hours

By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
January 31st, 2007 issue

Prague Ruzyně International Airport closed for the longest time in more than a decade Jan. 24 and 25 when a severe snowstorm prevented takeoffs and landings for more than 29 hours.

“This was the worst calamity for us in more than 15 years,” said Eva Krejčí, a spokeswoman for the airport.
But meteorologists say the storm that caused the delay was nothing special. Jiří Šír of the Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute’s aviation meteorology department said the airport has been hit with worst storms in the past and not been delayed so long.
“We had a little bit more snow, but nothing exceptional,” Šír said.
Nearly 450 flights had to be canceled, and incoming flights were redirected to airports in Brno, Bratislava and Budapest. Czech Airlines, which considers Ruzyně its home base, had to cancel more than 100 flights, and the company suffered a 30 million Kč ($1.4 million) loss, company spokeswoman Daniela Hupáková said.
“We were truly dependent on Ruzyně Airport,” Hupáková said.
Šír attributed the recent problems with the Ruzyně runways to a lengthy storm that apparently made it pointless for the airport’s maintenance workers to keep clearing the snow when the ground was being blanketed with it again and again.
Hupáková said the airlines’ management was in talks with the airport authorities about what to do to avoid a similar closure in the future.
“The airport management argued that the snowfall in Prague was heavier than elsewhere,” Hupáková said. Most European airports did not close at all, and those that did close did not remain so for long. Last year, Ruzyně closed twice, but only for 16 hours at a time.
It’s already been a bad year for the airport.
One week earlier, hurricane-force winds ripped a layer off the roof of the airport’s new terminal, which opened in late 2005. The windstorm shut down half the airport for an entire day Jan. 19.
The snowstorm forced airport maintenance workers to use all of their snow-clearing equipment, as well as outsource another nine trucks and three snow-loading machines.
Workers removed 410,000 cubic meters (14 million cubic feet) of snow weighing about 144,000 metric tons (158,733 short tons), Krejčí said, but wind blew another 14,000 metric tons back on to the runway.    
She insisted the airport authority did not underestimate the need for maintenance. The airport owns cleaning machines worth 205 million Kč and de-icing liquid worth 80 million Kč, she added. Should the problems reoccur, Krejčí said, the airport is ready to outsource more heavy machinery.

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


survey banner


Other articles in Business (31/01/2007):

Browse the Current Issue

If you enjoyed this article, why don't you subscribe to the print version!
We accept secure online transactions provided by PayPal and Moneybookers

Be the first to add a comment!


Full Name: *
City: *
E-mail: **
This comment can be published in the print version of The Prague Post
Enter the text on the right:
 visual captcha
Comment: *
* Required field. In order to be approved for display, comments must have a first and last name and a city.
** E-mails are required and will only be used for internal purposes.

Most visited in Book of Lists

Hotel booking
The Prague Post Online contains a selection of articles that have been printed in
The Prague Post, a weekly newspaper published in the Czech Republic.
To subscribe to the print paper, click here.
Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited.