Ostrava - From Ostrava, you can fly to Prague and Vienna, that's all. Passengers heading for more remote destinations in Europe must use other airports - Prague, Brno, or Katowice in Poland.
"A modern airport has emerged in Ostrava, but it needs more flights," a former employee of the airport who wished to stay unnamed told Aktuálně.cz. He added the management was responsible for the situation.
The airport owner, the Moravia-Silesia region, cannot be satisfied with just two destinations. Last year, regional councillors approved a plan to offer new flights run as a public service.
The regular flight between Ostrava and Vienna, launched in autumn 2006, was subsidised. The launch cost CZK 71 million, but the connection is self-sufficient today.
"The decision is similar to starting a school-bus line. The line cannot make money at first, but passengers get to their destination," said Jan Machytka from the Faculty of Transportation Sciences at the Czech Technical University in Prague.
The importance of negotiations
In contrast, the South Moravian region does not have to reach deep in its pockets: Flights from Brno to London, Moscow, Girona and Prague work on a commercial basis and make profits. The airport that clears 416,000 passengers every year is contemplating expanding its offer, but airlines are reluctant to disclose their plans prematurely.
"In Brno, they manage to introduce regular flights owing to people who are in a longer-term contact with airlines and who are good at doing business.
Talks with the low-cost airline Ryanair lasted three years before they started the flights. In Ostrava, the former managers were removed and replaced with people who are not good at business," said the former Ostrava airport employee.
"We have pushed through a plan to develop public-service flights mainly because no airline was interested in flying from our airport on a commercial basis," said Pavol Lukša, deputy governor of the Moravia-Silesia region.
Besides, the Ostrava airport has to cope with competition from other airports as airlines choose their destinations more carefully as fuel prices and flight costs grow.
"At first, it will be necessary to subsidise the flights. Another important factor will be the presentation of the region and new partnerships established in the target countries, which was the case with Brno-Moscow flights," said the former manager.
The Moravia-Silesia region plans to introduce 12 new destinations and to raise passenger numbers at the Ostrava airport five times against the current 332,000.
"It is not reasonable to start more flights at a time," said the former manager, adding costs grow out of proportion and the subsidies may dry out fast.
The future of an airport? Landings in Prague
The Brno and Ostrava airports are similar. As regional airports, the second and third most used airports in the country link the introduction of regular flights to the development of the region which gradually requires new connections.
"The airport is the engine behind efforts to develop investment. A well-functioning airport is one of the key conditions for investors who decide where to aim their money," said South Moravian governor Stanislav Juránek.
But direct flights are a mere supplement to the services typically offered by regional airports: Charter flights make up more than half of the traffic at both airports.
Another reason why it would not make sense to offer too many direct flights is the position of the Brno and Ostrava airports, which lie near three large airports in Prague, Vienna, and Bratislava.
"The future of a regional airport depends on a good connection to one or, better, two large airports such as Ruzyně, to ensure the broadest range of destinations possible. Owing to this, passengers can take a one-day trip to many places in Europe and return on the same day," said Tomáš Plaček, CEO of the Brno airport.
Adapted and republished by the Prague Daily Monitor.
