Beautiful natural scenery, tropical rainforest, and green tea aroma. Prague is the sixth European city to which China Airlines operates direct flights from Taipei. With a direct connection to the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, Prague now stands alongside Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, Rome, and Vienna. The connection is available twice a week and the carrier uses Airbus A350-900 aircraft to operate the Taipei – Prague route.
Prague Airport has been striving for a long-haul route to East Asia for several years. Its Chairman of the Board of Directors, Jiří Pos, therefore considers its launch to be a tremendous success, saying: “With this new connection, we will also boost inbound tourism.” Before the pandemic, i.e., in 2019, over 190 thousand passengers from Taiwan visited the Czech Republic. Last year, there were only 13,791 Taiwanese visitors, which meant a drop of almost 93 percent. A direct flight between Prague and Taipei could change this. “In addition, the connection will offer passengers from Prague the possibility of convenient transfers to a number of China Airlines destinations in Asia and the Pacific.”
According to China Airlines President, Kao Shing-Hwang, China Airlines is the only carrier to offer non-stop flights between Taiwan and the Czech Republic. The new Prague route will encourage bilateral business, trade and tourism. Kao also expects strong interest from the transit market for Japan, Korea and Vietnam, allowing more Asian travelers to pass through Taiwan on their way to and from the Czech Republic and thus enhancing Taiwan’s status as a regional transit hub.
“Direct air connections, their frequency and quality are of vital importance for tourism. We believe that thanks to the Prague – Taipei flights, the Czech Republic will once again be discovered more by tourists not only from Taiwan, but from all over Asia, who represent a very interesting tourism segment. If we take the average spending of tourists from China, Japan and South Korea in our country, we can see a gradual return of these foreign guests. While in 2019 they spent a total of CZK 4,860 per person per day in the Czech Republic, a year later it was CZK 3,888 and in 2021 it was even only CZK 2,170. Last year, the situation began to improve – the average spending of these Asian travellers in our country was CZK 4,321 per person per day,” says Jan Herget, director CzechTourism, adding: “The good news is that, as well as spending, the number of travellers from Asia is growing. The data on hotel accommodation in the Czech Republic from May this year shows that the number of Taiwanese tourists increased by 2,753 percent year-on-year, from 393 to 11,213.
Taiwan is not only a country of modern technology, but also offers many tourist attractions. In Taipei, the capital of three million inhabitants, there is the Palace Museum, which preserves rare collections of artefacts from the Forbidden City. Next year, the impressive local skyscraper, which is the second tallest building in the world and bears the number 101 in its name after the number of floors, will celebrate its twentieth anniversary. The island abounds in wild tropical nature with gorges, mountains, lakes, and thermal springs. Almost a tenth of the area of Taiwan is formed by national parks.
In terms of routes to Asia and the Middle East, Prague Airport currently offers connections to Amman, Dubai, Doha, Kuwait, Muscat, Riyadh, and Seoul.
