Operating outputs of the Airport Karlovy Vary in 2009

04.03.2010

The impact of the global economic and financial crisis proved in the operation of the Karlovy Vary Airport in the 2nd half of 2009. When at the end of May the airport reported an increase in the number of passengers of nearly 5%, at the end of the year there was a decrease of 10%. So last year the Karlovy Vary Airport registered in total 68 369 passengers, among those there were 63,231 direct terminal passengers, which is 10.46% less than in 2008.

The traditional Russian clients remain the most important ones in the structure of passengers using the Karlovy Vary airport. On the scheduled flights to Moscow the CSA and AEROFLOT carried in total 48,945 passengers, which is about 3% less than in 2008. On the scheduled flights to Saint Petersburg the CSA carried in total 9,681 passengers, which is nearly 8% less than in 2008. Generally the scheduled flights to the Russian Federation lost only 3.5% of passengers, which seems to be quite a good result regarding the given conditions.

To the contrary there was a significant fall in the charter season flights to the Mediterranean resorts, where the offer of destinations departing from Karlovy Vary decreased noticeably because of the travel agents? worries about the declining demand. There were only two destinations offered in 2008: the Greek Rhodos and the Turkish Antalya. However, the number of passengers carried by the Travel Service from Karlovy Vary to Rhodos and back in 2009 (1,280 passengers) increased by nearly 6% compared with 2008 (1,209 passengers), which shows the popularity of this destination and the real potencial of this market even in the days of crisis. On the charter flights to the Turkish Antalya there were 1,448 passengers in 2009, which means the decrease of 14% compared with 2008 (1,690 passengers).

Another standard airport outputs indicator, the number of aircraft movements at the Karlovy Vary Airport, reached 7,632 takings off and landings at the end of 2009. In 2008 it was 5,575 movements at the same period, which means a growth of nearly 37%. This figure was influenced mostly by the increase in the number of general traffic aircrafts movements thanks to the helpful policy of the airport?s operator and the Air traffic control, especially towards the training flights of the small aircrafts up to 2 tons MTOW and the growing activity of the local airport users.

The number of movements within the business air traffic reached 1,442 takings off and landings in 2009, which means a decrease of 8% compared with 2008. The percentage of the heavier aircrafts remained the same, e.g. in the cathegory over 50 tons MTOW there were 842 movements in 2009 compared with 840 movements in 2008.