By this time last year, the technical staff at Prague’s airport had de-iced 1600 planes but this year the de-icing equipment has only now been fully deployed. The reason being the unusually warm months of December and January. So far, only 300 planes have been de-iced at the airport. The storm in Europe and the fall in temperature have prompted airport authorities to take this step. The companies that handle the de-icing of airplanes at Prague airport include ČSA, which has 75% of the market share, Menzies and Letiště Praha.
The volume of de-icing fluid varies with the amount of snow to be removed. A Boeing 737 or and Airbus320 plane can be cleaned with 100 litres of de-icing fluid under normal snow and ice conditions. When the snow build-up is high, it can take up to 600 litres of the fluid to rid the aircraft of snow and ice.