Prague Airport Traveler Experience Takes Off
According to Radek Nehoda, operating an airport is a bit like conducting an orchestra. Both systems are symphonies of human effort, discipline, and coordination. One moves people across continents; the other moves hearts and minds. Nehoda, who is the executive director of asset and facilities management at Prague Airport, was speaking at the recent SAP Airport Innovation Summit in Brussels.
At first glance the two endeavors seem vastly different—one is a hub of logistics and transportation; the other, an artistic performance—but they share surprising similarities in terms of coordination, timing, and communication.
When it comes to precision and timing at the airport, aircraft must land, taxi, and take off in a tightly scheduled sequence. Baggage handling, fueling, and boarding all work on precise timetables. In the orchestra, musicians must follow the conductor’s beat, entering and exiting in exact moments to create harmony. One misstep in either setting can cause a cascade of problems—delays in an airport, dissonance in an orchestra. In either case, the experience is only memorable if executed flawlessly.
An economic driver
“People love to travel, and that won’t change any time soon,” said Nehoda, explaining that the future of aviation revolves around the growing demand for travel. “We’re currently seeing about 18 million travelers per year and this is clearly increasing. Even with the carbon footprint of the airport coming into play making it more expensive to fly, there won’t be a significant decrease in demand.”
Radek Nehoda, Executive Director, Asset and Facilities Management
Prague Airport
While Prague Airport is critical infrastructure owned by the state, it is a financially healthy business generating approximately €380 million in revenue, with €170 million earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA. The airport operates two terminals for commercial passengers and one terminal for government flights and private jets. With 183 buildings, the asset management department is managing over €1 billion in book property value. The airport’s non aeronautical business contributes more than 30% of revenue.
“We’re managing a brownfield airport, which means we have to work with existing infrastructure such as runways and terminal buildings. As facility managers, we need to manage resources as well as sustainability efforts efficiently,” said Nehoda. The role of the asset and facility management team includes energy supply and electrical engineering, baggage handling system (BHS), heating, cooling and ventilation (HVAC), fuel management, property maintenance, and the gradual electrification of the fleet.
The team’s mission is to digitalize asset maintenance for terminal operations with the same standard of data quality as needed for airside operations such as safety and security and preparing for emergencies.
“Our strategic priority is to move away from reactive and preventive maintenance to achieve predictive maintenance within a strategic asset and renovation master plan,” he explained. Some elements in the master plan include expanding the airport facilities and installing photovoltaic panels for the electrification of the airport’s vehicle fleet. Another is exploring the use of AI and other technologies to enhance crisis management and emergency readiness.
With the help of SAP Plant Maintenance (PM) module, Nehoda’s team has been able to standardize processes and provide a detailed reporting tool for decision-making across eight departments. The model includes a data structure with 68,000 pieces of equipment with detailed resource allocation per asset. The team was able to unify dispatching control for all work tasks, and field workers in facility management were equipped with 400 smartphones to use a custom-made app called “Mobile Technician.”
Talent – the big challenge
Ensuring a safe, flawless passenger experience and delivering on the team’s strategic mission requires dedicated, experienced employees. As in many other professions, people in the airport business acquire specialized skills and specific know-how over the years.
“The average age of the core team managing facilities at Prague Airport is 53!” said Nehoda. “We need to find ways to transfer their unique knowledge to our application portfolio, and we need to attract young talent to the team.”
Nehoda explained that the airport employs AI for testing and has signed memorandums with schools to attract students and hire them straight out of high school or college.
“Kids are attracted to professions that are glamorized on TikTok, but they don’t understand what it takes to make a living,” said Nehoda. “While everyone thinks travel is sexy, no one associates a job as an airport electrician as something that contributes to the overall concept of travel.”
Just as the audience experiences the orchestra as an entity, without thinking about the skills of individual musicians, no one sees the facility personnel and the system experts who together enable the passenger journey.
“Kids need to see airports not only as sexy gateways to adventure, but as attractive places to work,” he said. “They need to see themselves as part of an organization where every role is important. Everyone here is a crucial contributor to the overall travel experience that is increasingly a vital part of our modern lives.”