Prague, Jan 30 (CTK) – The Czech state, which has completed a project enhancing security at Prague’s Vaclav Havel Airport, will invest 585 million crowns in similar steps at the international airports in Brno, Karlovy Vary, Ostrava-Mosnov and Pardubice, Finance Minister Alena Schillerova (ANO) said on Tuesday.
The package of measures taken in Prague in the past three years cost 187 million crowns and was initiated by the previous government of the Social Democrats (CSSD), ANO and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL).
ANO leader and current Prime Minister Andrej Babis described the airport as one of the safest in the world.
“Fortunately, we are not a target of terrorist attacks, and I hope we will not be, because the state bodies are intensively working on [preventing] this. The investment [in security measures] is a good contribution to our citizens and the visitors of Prague feeling very well,” Babis told a press conference.
He said the Interior Ministry, the Customs Authority, the police, the counter-intelligence service and the Cesky Aeroholding company have assisted in implementing the measures, apart from the Finance Ministry.
Out of the measures planned in Prague, all have been implemented except for the face detection system, which is in pilot operation for the time being.
The measures include cameras monitoring the area outside the airport buildings, including car number plates, and detecting the cars that have been sought by the police.
A year ago, gates for automatic passenger checks were put in operation. The customs officers, for their part, use new devices for radiation detection.
“I am glad that the Interior Ministry has gained a positive experience for the project to continue at other airports,” Interior Minister Lubomir Metnar (for ANO) said.
He said the implementation of the measures outside Prague will also take some three years.
The previous cabinet approved the project in January 2015. At the Prague airport, it should have been completed in 2016, but it got delayed due to dragging-on tenders, Vaclav Rehor, head of the Cesky Aeroholding company’s board of directors, explained previously.
Schillerova said the upgrading of the Prague airport’s security was not financed from the state money only.
“The airport has a plan of development until 2035, within which it is prepared to invest 27 billion crowns on its development without the state’s help,” she said.
She said the airport plans to extend the Terminal 2 serving for flights bound for the Schengen countries, and to build a parallel runway.
