SPECIAL FEATURES

Spotting in Prague - a special report by David Kinsey 

In February I was able to make a brief visit to the Czech capitol, Prague. I flew from Manchester with CSA, the flight was on time and I was quite impressed with the Boeing 737, getting a bit on the elderly side, but comfortable with plenty of leg room. We were served a lunch on the plane, which was typical airline food, but at least it was free.

We arrived at Prague and the aircraft parked on Terminal 2 and we were bussed over to Terminal One where all the British flights operate to and from. Prague is similar in shape to East Midlands, being an L shape. Pictured above is Terminal One, Terminal Two branches out to the left hand side of the photograph. There is an additional Terminal Three, but this is mainly used by Charters and Business flights.

Getting into the City is easy and cheap, a bus service (No.119) leaves from directly outside the Terminal to Dejvicka where you connect into the Prague Metro system. One ticket covers the complete journey, you can also obtain tickets covering 24 hours and either 3 or 5 days. These cover travel on all Prague buses, trams and the Metro system. Remember though that the tickets MUST be validated before first use.

Spotting at Prague there are a few possibilities. Easiest point is the top of Terminal One  multi storey Car Park. You should not experience any problems here, many locals use these facilities. Photography from here is quite good as most aircraft pass by this point to or from the Runway. Watch also on the opposite side of the Park which offers views of the preserved Dakota

There are views from inside Terminal One, the glass windows at the right hand end of the building, departures, do offer limited views, but these are near to the check in area for long haul CSA flights and this area can get very busy. Walking from here towards the Arrivals you pass under the Aero 45 suspended from the roof.

Going up a flight of stairs you will find the Airport Restaurant, reasonably priced but seemingly to be be mainly used by staff!. there are limited views from here, but photography is not really possible. Back down the stairs and continue heading towards Terminal Two, up another flight of stairs which basically is on the corner between the two Terminals. Here you will find a small bar and also a small outside viewing area, which with patience, you can eventually get most of whatever is to be seen. Again, photography is quite possible from here.

Movements from here are of course mainly dominated by CSA, although you can expect to see a few Skyeurope and a good selection of British cut price hauliers such as Jet2, EasyJet, bmibaby and Ryanair. Most Western European airlines can be found, but frequently they tend to use smaller aircraft such as Air France Regional Embraers and Austrian Arrows Fokkers and Dash 8s. Eastern European Airlines are less frequent sightings, Aeroflot seem to have a few flights a day, whilst others I saw were Aerosvit Airlines B.737 and KD Avia B.737. Another interesting visitor was Korean Airlines with a Airbus A330, not sure of the frequency of this service

Once Airside at Terminal One you have full access to all areas of the Terminal and Piers, although with waiting sections on all gates, forget photography. There is access to the Restaurant mentioned previously, although obviously separated, and there is also a very small outdoor area leading from here. The usual range of gift shops can be found here. Note however that once Airside, there is no access through to Terminal Two. All in all, Prague is well worth the visit, the City is superb also, and during the Summer months you also have the Museum at Kbely to look at.