The Ministry of Transport estimates that another 80,000 people will travel between the Czech Republic and Brussels over the next six months due to the presidency. This is significantly more than the current capacity of Brussels Airlines, which is the only carrier to operate the air service.

Although the influx of passengers from Belgium can be a boost for fading tourism in Prague, the problem will be to transport these people to the Czech Republic in a dignified form. “Part of the delegations will be coming with specials. Neighboring states will use other types of connections, such as rail. But it will be dominantly air traffic, which will be directed to the terminal of the so-called old Ruzyně, “said Minister of Transport Martin Kupka.

The terminal for private flights was modernized during the covid quarantines. While the High Representative is taken care of as a result, ordinary officials will simply not have a situation. Earlier, Czech officials were warned that they should buy tickets for negotiations in advance so that they do not sell out. After CSA canceled the route to Brussels as part of its savings, only Brussels Airlines flies to Belgium, twice a day.

A larger plane will fly

Negotiations with Smartwings, which are the owners of CSA, on the launch of the merger after a six-month presidency did not bring success. “It is not yet economically justified for CSA to introduce a regular flight to Brussels and compete with a company that received support from its government during the covid pandemic,” Smartwings owner Jiří Šimáně told Hospodářské noviny.

In addition to Brussels Airlines and Czech Airlines, low-cost Ryanair flies from Prague to Belgium. However, flights with it are much less suitable for operational transport at the meeting, partly because they go to Charleroi Airport, located 60 kilometers from the Belgian capital.

The biggest problems can be expected during the holiday months. Officials have already scheduled meetings, while the airlines will be on holiday. Only from September will the number of daily flights of Brussels Airlines be expanded to three by the morning flight, which is still uncovered after the termination of Czech Airlines flights.

Therefore, Prague Airport asked the Belgian carrier whether it would fly more often. “Prague Airport contacted Brussels Airlines with a view to considering the possibility of increasing the number of connections in July and August, where the possibility of a morning connection to Brussels fell out after CSA’s departure,” said airport spokeswoman Klára Divíšková. Although Prague Airport was unable to arrange any additional connections, it at least achieved an increase in the number of seats. In the years when the smaller Airbus A319 was originally supposed to fly, the A320 aircraft with a higher seating capacity will be used, said Prague Airport.

Officials will resign

Therefore, at least in the summer, many officials on the route will have to change seats. While the flight from Brussels usually takes around an hour and a half, with a transfer via Munich or Frankfurt it takes more than four hours.

In addition, passengers who are serious about car restrictions will not have a green compensation for flying in the form of a night train. The Prague-Berlin-Brussels-Amsterdam route was supposed to be in operation from June this year, but this will not happen yet. It is not economically viable.

“At the border, the machine gun and the train driver change. They will leave three and a half hours on the Dutch part of the route, and only an hour and a half on the Belgian part. However, the local railways charge us exorbitant prices and do not sell us services in hours, but in days, “said Radim Jančura, owner of RegioJet, which was supposed to combine the operation, to MF DNES.

According to him, RegioJet is preparing a study for the European Commission on how to start night train transport as an alternative to more wasteful aviation. From a technical point of view, the Union has resolved transit on the main rail routes.

In the coming years, the obligation to use a single European signaling device, which will allow trains to pass through Europe with a single technical device, is to come into force on the tracks. However, the fragmentation of regulations and the fact that, unlike aviation, there is no single language of communication, remain a problem. As a result, railways still operate in national islands and cross-border connections tend to be expensive and unable to compete with air transport.