Prague Airport in 9 Minutes from the Main Train Station, According to a Proposal by the Puls Institute
(Prague, Czech Republic, July 23, 2025) A new proposal from the Puls Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure shows that, in addition to the existing planned rail line to Václav Havel Airport Prague, it would be advisable to build a second rail line that would connect the airport directly to high-speed rail services terminating in Prague. This ambitious plan currently exists as a study and is based primarily on a tunnel that would allow high-speed trains to enter Prague Main Station underground, connect to Metro Lines A and B at the Můstek stop, and travel all the way to the underground station beneath Terminal 1—all in 9 minutes. The line will then continue toward Kladno and Karlovy Vary, making it useful not only for airport visitors.
This proposal for a connection to high-speed trains is important for several reasons. First and foremost, it responds to the Czech Republic’s ambition to introduce high-speed rail lines and, at the same time, to the obligations arising from European directives, which require the Czech Republic to connect Václav Havel Airport to the high-speed rail network by 2040 and to connect the airports in Brno and Ostrava by 2050 (Regulation (EU) 2024/1679 of the European Parliament and of the Council). For example, the trip from Ústí nad Labem to Václav Havel Airport would take 40 minutes and would clearly compete with travel by car. “If the Czech Republic wants to prosper, it must be prepared for ‘supermobile’ people. These are the individuals who lead companies and major international institutions. If you give super-mobile people a reason to live in the Czech Republic, major companies will also establish their tax domicile here and generate revenue for the state. The same applies to international institutions—they, in turn, will bring prestige and influence to the Czech Republic within Europe,” explains Martin Hausenblas, co-founder of the Puls Institute, outlining the benefits.
Thanks to the connection to high-speed rail lines, the catchment area of Václav Havel Airport will expand to include Dresden, Ostrava, and Linz. The estimated investment cost for such a connection is 70 billion CZK; however, in this case, the construction would be a perfect example of a PPP project, in which a private investor would partially fund the project while also generating revenue from it. Thanks to its connection to high-speed rail lines, Václav Havel Airport will have the potential to handle up to 35 million passengers per year. Assuming that 60% of passengers would be traveling to the airport and the ticket price would be approximately 430 CZK (airport employees and, where applicable, residents of Kladno, Prague, and other cities would be exempt from the fare or receive a discount), the Airport Express would generate annual revenue of 9 billion. Even under a pessimistic scenario of “only” 19 million passengers per year, the Airport Express would generate revenue of approximately 4.9 billion per year, and the payback period for the entire project would thus range between 8 and 14 years.
“Building an alternative rail corridor under Prague in the form of a tunnel, however, has another key advantage. The Czech Republic serves as a transport and logistics hub within NATO, and military analysts have long been concerned that we do not have a sufficiently robust road network to move large numbers of personnel and equipment in the event of an attack. Of course, it would be ideal to carry out military transports by rail, but Prague is a high-risk location in this regard—a single strike there could paralyze the entire rail network. “Tunnel transportation, as implemented by the Airport Express near Prague, could then serve as a backup transport route, as could the subsequent connection to the Karlovy Vary high-speed rail line,” adds Martin Hausenblas.
You can download the complete study on the Airport Express at www.pulse.institute along with the individual drawings.
Contact:
Adam Ondráček
Director
Puls Institute
Phone: 00420 732 957 387
