Aviation woes easing, with Czech airports reporting little chaos

Demand for airline tickets in recent weeks appears to have reached its peak for this year, and is even slowing down. Czech airports have not reported the types of delays seen at some other airports, but they are not immune to the higher prices and staff shortages affecting the industry.

Some ticket sellers now say air travel has been negatively affected by rising costs and insufficient capacity. This has caused people to seek alternatives, especially for travel within Europe. Many airports and carriers in Europe are already facing capacity problems, but the situation in the Czech Republic has mostly remained calm, according to travel experts.

Czech airports have so far avoided significant complications, ticket sellers said. Prague's Václav Havel Airport has not seen the type of delays check-in chaos that some other airports across Europe and in the U.S. have reported.

Josef Trejbal, head of the ticket seller Letuška.cz, said that even though the summer is stronger than the airport predicted before the summer season, passengers there are not experiencing problems with check-in. According to him, people at regional airports in Pardubice, Ostrava, and Karlovy Vary are also being checked in smoothly.

The airline industry is now facing the same challenges as the economy as a whole, such as rising costs due to fuel prices, a shortage of skilled labor, and increased wage demands across the aviation industry.

"All of this affects the price of airline tickets. In addition, unfortunately, the industry is being damaged by flight cancellations and problems at some airports," Trejbal told the Czech News Agency (ČTK).

The lack of operational staff has been causing problems for airports and carriers in Europe. As a consequence, there is confusion when checking in passengers and luggage, with large lines forming. A number of carriers and airports have canceled some services in recent weeks. Problems have been reported in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

Trejbal noted that delays, flight cancellations, reduced ticket sales, strikes and undelivered or lost luggage are the result of a situation being mismanaged by aviation companies. "They were apparently lulled to sleep by state support during the period of Covid, and did not prepare sufficiently for the return of passengers," Trejbal noted.

Ticket sales for the summer holiday period exceeded expectations, according to sellers. Demand in some places exceeded pre-pandemic levels, in some destinations by dozens of percent. The highest level of interest was for flights within Europe. At the same time, ticket prices for July and August were about 43 percent higher than last year, according to ticket website Kiwi.com.

"This is due to several factors, including high passenger demand, rising fuel and energy prices, and price increases in general," Kiwi.com said.

Student Agency, which also sells plane tickets in addition to bus and train tickets, said air ticket prices are now about 25 percent higher compared to the pre-holiday period. Due to the need for more fuel, the more significant price increase is on longer long-haul flights.

Letuška.cz said that demand traditionally starts to fall in August. The weakening of sales may last for several months, Letuška.cz added.