Compact archive June 21, 2007

Are you curious about how a big international airport operates? You have a chance to look “behind the scenes” of the Ruzyne Airport in Prague, the biggest international airport in the Central Europe. There are regular tours for the public, starting in June.

The tour lasts 1.5 hour. You will see the terminals, get to know about the system of airport runways and you will see some things that regular passengers never can – such as planes taking off or landing, from a close distance. A tour of the Rescue and Fire Station is also included.

These tours take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 3 pm and also every first and third Sunday in a month at 10 am and 1 pm. A ticket for an adult costs 150,- CZK, children 3 – 15 years of age pay 70,- CZK, as well as senior citizens, students and disabled people. A family ticket (2 adults, 2 children) costs 330,- CZK.

You can take photos or make an amateur video during the tour. For more information and for booking a visit, click here.

The cult band Sonic Youth, which has changed the sound of rock´n´roll in the ´80s and ´90s, will play in the Divadlo Archa in Prague on 25th August.

Unlike their contemporaries in the ´80s, Sonic Youth have played an unconventional rock music, combining the experiments of Velvet Underground with post-punk influences. Using dissonance and feedback, they created a guitar noise that influenced many bands – especially later in the ´90s. The most important albums of this era were EVOL, Sister and Daydream Nation.

Sonic Youth are going to visit Prague again after 11 years. The venue Divadlo Archa (Archa Theater) is situated in Na Porici Street 26, Prague 1. The show starts at 8 pm and a ticket costs 995,- CZK. Tickets are available at Ticketpro.

The number of inhabitants of the Czech Republic grows – it is more than 10.3 million at the present time. It is caused especially by a growing number of immigrants, but also by a higher number of born children.

There are more born children, because the mothers were mostly born in the ´70s, the years of population boom in the former Czechoslovakia. However, the average number of born children is still very low – it is only 1.4 per one mother. That´s one of the lowest numbers in the world. According to demographers, the politicians are to blame for this situation, because they don´t support young families enough.

The growth of the population in the Czech Republic is therefore largely caused by immigrants. They are mostly from Ukraine, Vietnam and Slovakia.

The public transport in Prague will change a lot, when the new railway tunnels will be built under the Vitkov Hill. Now it seems, that these tunnels will be finished much sooner, than was expected – probably already at the end of 2008.

The new railways will be much used for travelling within Prague, which is not usual at the present time. The tunnels will connect the Main Railway Station (Hlavni nadrazi) and Masarykovo nadrazi with districts in the north of Prague – Liben, Vysocany, Holesovice. The trams and metro should therefore be not as overcrowded, as they are now. The new railways will also be the fastest way to travel from one end of Prague to the other.

It is the most important railway building in Prague since the World War II. The building company Skanska promises, that people will have the chance to try the new railways already next year.

Prague has just one airport at the present time – the Ruzyne Airport. However, this can change in few years. There are plans, that a new international airport will be built in Vodochody very close to Prague. It could be open in 2009 or 2010.

There is an aircraft factory in Vodochody and its landing runway will be probably made the new commercial airport. It is not supposed to compete with Ruzyne: around 1.5 million passengers should pass its terminal a year, which is about 10% of Ruzyne passengers. The airport at Vodochody would focus on low-cost airlines, such as easyJet or SkyEurope.

The citizens of Vodochody aren´t happy about the plan. They are afraid of noise and of many cars, that would drive to the airport.