PRAGUE — The City of Prague confirmed on 22 July 2026 that it has signed a CZK 620 million design-and-build contract for a permanent floating helipad on the Vltava River just south of the historic Vyšehrad fortress. The platform, due to open in early 2027, will allow helicopter ambulances to set down within minutes of the city’s main trauma, cardiac and maternity centres, ending years of reliance on temporary landing sites in public parks. For corporate mobility managers, the investment is more than a civic amenity. Prague has become a regional conference and shared-services hub, regularly hosting office workers and expatriate families whose emergency-care expectations mirror those in Western Europe. A modern, purpose-built helipad with heated surfaces, LED approach lighting and a direct patient-transfer corridor to General University Hospital will shorten med-evac times from Prague Airport and from business clusters on the city’s outskirts. Deputy Mayor for Healthcare Alexandra Udženija said the floating design avoids costly land acquisition and ensures that operations do not conflict with the dense ground-level traffic network. The structure will be anchored to two river pylons and engineered to cope with seasonal water-level fluctuations of up to 3 m. A remote-monitoring system will feed live weather and obstacle data to pilots through the Air Navigation Services’ digitised briefing portal. Helicopter operator DSA told Prague Daily News that it expects call-outs to rise by 12 % once the helipad is commissioned, mainly for inter-hospital transfers and industrial-accident evacuations from Central Bohemia. Insurance underwriters note that companies sending assignees to Prague may see lower med-evac premiums because flight paths will no longer have to orbit the city looking for daylight-only landing lawns. The project aligns with the Czech government’s 2025-2030 National Aviation Infrastructure Plan, which emphasises decentralised access points for emergency services and disaster response. Construction will start in September 2026 after riverbed surveys and navigation-safety consultations with the State Navigation Authority. Businesses organising large events on the Vltava or operating company boats should watch for temporary navigation notices during barge-mounted piling this winter.
Source: Prague Daily News
