Flights to Shanghai increase

China Eastern Airlines confirmed that it will increase the number of flights on the route from Václav Havel Airport Prague to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport. Starting May 6, flights will depart from Prague five times a week, with new service added on Mondays.

The airline deploys an Airbus A330-200 aircraft configured for 262 passengers on this route.

The Monday, Tuesday and Saturday flights will be direct between Prague and Shanghai. Flights on Thursdays and Sundays will include a stop in Xi’an, where tourists head to see the famous terracotta army.

Based on airport estimates, it is expected that approximately 10,000 passengers will use this route in both directions during the summer season.

The Prague to Shanghai route began June 23, 2016, with China Eastern Airlines flying three times a week with an A330-200.

Tickets are available through the carrier's website at www.chinaeasternairlines.cz.

China is becoming an increasingly important source of tourists. Flights between Prague and Beijing began Sept. 23, 2015, and flights to Chengdu began Aug. 12, 2016.

The number of arrivals from China to the Czech Republic in 2018 increased the most of any major country, up 26.5 percent to reach 619, 877. China was the third-largest source of visitors in the fourth quarter in 2018, after Germany and Slovakia. For the entire year, China was in fourth place, with Poland edging it out to take third.

In terms of overnight stays, visitors from China to the Czech Republic were in eighth place, with 915,875 stays, up 22.9 percent from the previous year.

Thanks largely to new routes and increased service on existing routes, Václav Havel Airport Prague in 2018 had a record total of 16,797,006 passengers passing through the airport, with a total of 155,530 take-offs and landings. While there were 9 percent more passengers, the number of airplane movements increased less than 5 percent.

Václav Havel Airport Prague opened April 5, 1937, as Prague Ruzyně Airport. Right after former president Václav Havel's death on Dec. 18, 2011, an online petition asked the government to rename it to Václav Havel International Airport. This name change took place Oct. 5, 2012, on what would have been Havel's 76th birthday.