Direct flights from Prague to the US will not occur in 2020, airlines confirm

No airlines will be offering direct flights between the Czech Republic and the United States this year, and only one will be going to Canada.

American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have all canceled their routes. The number of passengers on all long-haul routes is expected to remain low throughout the rest of 2020 due to travel restrictions related to the coronavirus.

American Airlines announced the interruption of flights for the entire year, while for Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, the information comes from the reservation systems.

“Both airlines have confirmed to us that they will not operate direct flights from Prague to the USA this year,” Prague Airport spokeswoman Kateřina Pavlíková told travel news server Zdopravy.cz. Prague Airport is the company that operates Václav Havel Airport Prague.

Delta was originally scheduled to start daily flights in early May from Prague to New York’s JFK Airport. United Airlines was to start service in June to Newark Airport in New Jersey.

The only airline offering direct service this year to North America is Air Transat, which will go to Montreal twice a week. Air Canada Rouge does not offer any flights from Prague this year.

Connections to the United States were among the fastest growing segments in 2019, with a total of 28.7% of passengers on trans-Atlantic last year. Over a quarter of a million people traveled on the routes between Prague and North America last year.

Václav Havel Airport in 2019 handled a record total of 17,804,900 passengers, approximately 1 million more than in 2018, or a 6% year-on-year increase.

Throughout the entire year, 71 airlines provided regular connections from Prague to a total of 165 destinations, of which 15 were long-haul. The airport reported a significant increase in the number of passengers also on long-haul routes, overall by 10.9%.

The busiest month in in 2019 was August with 1,996,813 handled passengers. The daily average at Prague Airport was almost 49,000 passengers and the busiest day was on Friday, June 28, 2019, with a record number of 70,979 passengers.

The long-term trend for increased service had been expected to extend through 2020, but that will not be the case.