Brno, especially in the recent years, is changing and developing significantly especially in the business field, where global companies such as IBM, SolarWinds, Honeywell, AVG, Avast, Red Hat, Motorola, Daikin, NetSuite, Ysoft, Tescan, FEI etc. operate successfully At the same time, in concordance with its long-term strategy, Brno is heading towards becoming a significant center of science,research and innovation in Central Europe. Last year, the financing of the Central Europe Technological Institute (CEITEC) was approved. The International Center of Clinical Research (ICRC), which co-operates with the American Mayo Clinic, is under construction on the grounds of the St.Anne's University Hospital Brno. And other scientific and research centers are being prepared ( NetMe, AdMaS, CETOCOEN etc)

Further acceleration of the economical growth of the city and maximum usage of the above stated favorable situation is regrettably limited by the inadequate global availability of Brno. This fact was accentuated by the Concept of the Economical Growth of the City (CEGC), which was searching for measures for increasing the competitive strength of Brno in Europe. One of the suggestions of CEGC was the recommendation to develop a Comparative study of the global availability of Brno. The study, based on the worked out analytical part and the prediction of the demand, had to deduce the financial and economical parameters of the sustainable public intervention with the goal of improving the global availability of the city and the region.

The study was worked out last year and was presented to the public. Concurrently the field research of the companies and the VaV centers in the South Moravia region, for surveying the real demand and the potential of new air route, was carried out. The results of both studies confirmed that in the fallout area of the Brno airport a potential of development of traditional airline travel from/to Brno quantified by the unsatisfied demand of air transport exists. This potential is represented by approximately 600,000 - 700,000 passangers/year, which every year use the airports around Brno. Attracting some of those "escaping" passengers represent the main source of the demand for new regular air route from Brno to some of the junction airports in Europe (so called HUBs). Let's, out of curiosity, repeat some information from the conducted research among companies.

From the companies that use air transport more than 50% expressed interest in a new air route from Brno (BRQ) to a HUB airport. 89% of them report that they will use the new air route from/to BRQ as a substitution of the current travel method. The answers of the companies from Brno and South Moravia region show that the company passengers would prefer a connection with the airport in Frankfurt (attachment 1), in Munich (attachment 2) and Paris (attachment 3). Lastly, the main strategical recommendation based on the development of the competitive strength of Brno and the region can be summarized the following way: its vital to aim the focus of the public sector on the development of the traditional air transport from/to Brno.

Ing. Jaroslav Petrák and Dr.Ing. Marie Zezůlková (Office of municipal strategy)