Last year the Airport Karlovy Vary achieved another hopeful increase in the number of passengers and so a new record in this operating indicator as well. In 2008 70,620 passengers were checked-in at the completely reconstructed terminal, adjusted to meet the Schengen Agreements. Compared to 2007 there was a rise of 16.8 % (indication without the transit passengers), e.g. 61,036 passengers on the scheduled flights and 9,584 passengers within irregular traffic (mostly charter flights for the travel agencies). The airport also registered 11,100 transit passengers, so the total number of passengers reached 81,720, which means a rise of 26.4 % compared to 2007. 

The dominating position among the air carriers is still kept by CSA (44,214 passengers) and also the Russian Aeroflot (18,513 passengers), which increased the frequency of their flights on the scheduled destination to Moscow up to 3 flights a week during the year, followed by the Travel Service company (4,242 passengers). For completeness? sake it is necessary to mention Karthago Airlines, too (962 passengers).

Also the charter season flights to the seaside resorts developed hopefully. Last season the flights to Egyptian Hurgada were started (1,984 passengers), and also to Heraklion (1,343 passengers) on the Greek island of Crete. The flights to already established destinations continued - Greek Rhodos (1,209 passengers), Turkish Antalya (1,690 passengers), and Tunisian Monastir (962 passengers). However, these Monastir flights, earlier a very popular destination, were finished during the year because of the reputedly low interest of passengers.

The number of aircraft movements at the Airport Karlovy Vary at the end of 2008 reached 5,575 take-offs and landings. In 2007 during the same period it was 6,801, which meant a decrease of 18 %. This decrease was apart from the other things caused by the lower number of movements in the general aviation (aircrafts up to 5,700 kg) thanks to the Czech Republic joining the Schengen area, which made possible to start using also other smaller airports without the border control. Also the activities of the local airport users decreased, especially the fact, that the FUN AIR company, whose owner died in the air crash in Ukraina at the end of 2007, went out off business had a big impact.

On the contrary the trend of growth of the commercial air traffic at the expense of the general aviation has become a permanent phenomenon in the past years. The number of movements within the commercial air traffic reached 1,568 in 2008, whereas in 2007 there were 1,239 movements, which represents an increase of over 26 %. At the same time the proportion of aircrafts over 50 tons is rising, where there were 660 movements in 2007 and 840 in 2008, which represents an increase of more than 27 %.