After 101 years of flight, Czech Airlines takes off for the last time this weekend
On Saturday 26th of October, the final Czech Airlines (ČSA) flight will take off from Paris and land in Prague, bringing to an end a century of aviation history. Having been one of the five oldest air carriers in the world, Czech Airlines will become just another brand in the portfolio of the Smartwings group.
Founded in October 1923, the first journeys offered by Czech Airlines – or Czechoslovak State Airlines as it was then – were domestic flights between Prague and Bratislava. The inaugural flight between the two cities was made by a biplane, carrying the pilot Karel Brabenec and one journalist, and taking three hours. Seven years later, the company’s routes were extended to destinations abroad, beginning with Zagreb in Yugoslavia in 1930. In the 1970s, regular flights to more distant countries began, including long-haul flights to Montreal, New York and Havana.
However, this weekend, after a century, flights with the code OK will disappear from the sky, as Czech Airlines ceases flights as an independent carrier. The company will also leave the SkyTeam alliance, a cooperative arrangement between more than twenty carriers, including Air France, American Delta and Korean Air. Its planes will operate as part of the Smartwings portfolio, under the code QS.
The Czech Airlines livery will not disappear completely; two Airbus A320 aircraft will continue to fly in the Czech Airlines colours, as will the four new Airbus A220-300 machines, the first two of which are to be delivered at the end of this year and the other two in the first half of 2025.
The problems for the airline began in the 1990s, with the first unsuccessful attempts at privatisation. The problems were compounded by managerial mistakes, the 2008 economic crisis, the rise of low-cost airlines, and then the Covid-19 pandemic. The fleet of aircraft and the number of routes began to decrease, and Czech Airlines became a part of Smartwings in 2018, who bought almost 98% of shares.
Jan Sůra, an air transport expert and the founder of the travel-news website zdopravy.cz, commented on the decline of Czech Airlines and the priorities of airline passengers today.
“After 10 years, it has been declining and has a minimum number of passengers. So for the general public, there will probably be no change, because at the moment Czech Airlines operates only the route from Prague to Paris, and it has been replaced on the market by other carriers.”
The end of the airline may evoke in Czechs feelings of nostalgia and sadness, but Jan Sůra notes that such sentiments nonetheless do not determine travellers’ ticket choices.
“I think the brand doesn't have that sentiment for the travellers anymore, because air travel has changed a lot. CSA's heyday was when flying was something exclusive and people didn't fly that often. Now, thanks to the advent of low-cost airlines, flying has become a completely common mode of transport, which is often the cheapest way to move around Europe. And people don't decide based on sentiment … but whether they are comfortable with the flight schedule and the price.”
