Czech Airlines

Czech Airlines ended its own flight operations on 26 October 2024, handing them over to Smartwings while being repurposed into a holding company.[5] ČSA was the fifth oldest airline in the world, after Dutch KLM (1919), Colombian Avianca (1919), Australian Qantas (1920), and Soviet/Russian Aeroflot (1923).Following a coup in February 1948, the Czechoslovak Communist Party suspended some of ČSA's western European and Middle Eastern routes and also gradually replaced much of the fleet with Soviet-built airliners, due to the embargo imposed by the West on the western-built aircraft spares and other equipment.Three Czechoslovak Douglas DC-3 airliners flown to an American air base at Erding, near Munich, stirred the world on both sides of the "burnt through" Iron Curtain and the case intensified the Cold War between East and West overnight.[citation needed] On the morning of 24 March, the three aircraft landed near Munich instead of at Prague; the first from Brno, at 08:20, the second from Moravská Ostrava at 08:40, and the third from Bratislava at 09:20.[6] The airline's first transatlantic services started on 3 February 1962 with a flight to Havana[15] using a Bristol Britannia turboprop leased from Cubana de Aviación.From the late 1960s, ČSA used a range of Soviet-built aircraft and modified versions for its extensive European and intercontinental services, totalling some 50 international and 15 domestic destinations.The Britannia was replaced with shorter-range Ilyushin Il-18D turboprops at this time, and transatlantic routes were established to Montreal and New York City in addition to Havana, with refuelling stops at Shannon (Eire) and Gander (Newfoundland).[20] In late 2012, ČSA Czech Airlines announced expansion plans and the resumption of long-haul flights in summer 2013 with Airbus A330 aircraft between Prague and Seoul.[21] Starting in March 2013, it operated direct flights from Prague to Perm, Nice, Munich, Zurich, Seoul, and Florence.On May 14, 2013, Czech Airlines Extraordinary General shareholders' meeting elected Cho Won-tae as a new member of its supervisory board.[25] On 6 October 2017, Korean Air announced the sale of its 44 percent stake in Czech Airlines, which it had held for four years, to Travel Service.[27] In 2014, the airline sold its Airbus 320s, as it had become unprofitable to fly them due to low load factor and high maintenance costs.The airline operated a fleet of eighteen planes over the summer of 2017 to a total of fifty different destinations, including twenty-five distinct European and Asian countries, the most extensive coverage since the global financial crisis.[34] In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Czech Airlines announced in April 2020 the end of its already suspended sole long-haul route to Seoul.[39] In February 2021, a maintenance provider ordered the seizure of two Czech Airlines' ATR 72-500 in Prague over unpaid debts.[47] In October 2024, Czech Airlines was restructured into a holding company, with Smartwings taking over all flight operations under both brand names.[54] Before the insolvency application, in February 2021, Czech Airlines moved its headquarters to the Smartwings building at Prague airport.New CEO and ex-minister Jaroslav Tvrdík agreed with the unions to increase wages by a third and announced an "unprecedented" enlargement of the fleet.[67] As of February 2021, Czech Airlines served four scheduled year-round and seasonal destinations including their home base at Václav Havel Airport Prague.