Prague mayor casts doubt on new airport runway

Prague's mayor Zdenek Hrib has cast doubt on the construction of a parallel runway at the city's international airport. Work on the 3,000 meter strip, which would be used primarily for planes landing in Prague, was supposed to get underway in 2022 and cost CZK 9bn. "Another parallel runway would allow the airport's capacity to rise to 30 million passengers," said Hrib. "But Prague isn't able to take in more tourists and instead we have to deal intensively with the negative effects of over-tourism such as the unregulated Airbnb which is raising the price of housing." He added that the city's governing coalition hadn't completed negotiations on the question, but there appear to be more voices against the new runway than for it. Planning regulations governing the development of Prague condition its construction on the completion of a high capacity rail connection to the airport. The airport handled a record 17.8 million passengers last year, but this figure is expected to drop significantly in 2020 due to the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic.