Prague’s Václav Havel Airport has unveiled a fresh package of operational and passenger-care measures designed to ease congestion at passport control for travellers arriving from non-Schengen countries. The programme – announced on 15 October – is being implemented jointly with the Immigration Police and the Ministry of the Interior in response to long waiting times generated by last year’s launch of the EU Entry/Exit System (EES). The EES requires third-country nationals to register fingerprints and a facial image at the border, extending processing times and creating bottlenecks during peak arrival waves. Under the new plan, Prague Airport is increasing the number of staffed booths at Terminal 1, deploying a dedicated “EES Assistance Team” to guide passengers and prioritise families with small children, older travellers and people with reduced mobility. Additional floor signage and barrier systems will channel passenger flows more intuitively, while real-time queue-length monitoring will automatically trigger the distribution of water and extra staff when waiting times exceed set thresholds. Management is also testing a pre-notification scheme with selected airlines so that arriving passengers receive EES guidance before landing. Airport executives say the objective is to keep average border-control times below 15 minutes even during the busy winter schedule, when long-haul flights from the United Kingdom, the Gulf and North America arrive in tight clusters. Business-travel stakeholders welcomed the move, noting that lengthy queues had begun to jeopardise tight connection windows for corporate itineraries and undermine Prague’s ambitions to position itself as a regional transfer hub. For Czech companies that regularly welcome customers and suppliers from outside the Schengen Area, smoother arrivals are more than a convenience; they can determine whether meetings start on time and whether itineraries remain cost-efficient. Travel-management firms advising multinational clients in Prague recommend updating airport-arrival guidance given to visitors and monitoring the impact of Prague’s measures before the year-end holiday peak. Looking ahead, airport management acknowledges that further infrastructure upgrades are necessary. A full reconstruction of the border-control zone in Terminal 1 is scheduled to start in early 2027, but today’s low-cost operational tweaks should deliver immediate relief and provide real-world data to shape the larger renovation project.
Source: Passenger Terminal Today
