Czech Airlines

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Czech Airlines
Czech Airlines Airbus A330-300
IATA code : OK
ICAO code : CSA
Call sign : CSA-LINES
Founding: 1923
Seat: Prague , Czech RepublicCzech RepublicCzech Republic 
Turnstile :

Prague airport

Home airport : Prague airport
Company form: Akciová společnost
IATA prefix code : 064
Number of employees: 692 (2018)
Sales: 8.1 billion CZK (2015)
Alliance : SkyTeam
Frequent Flyer Program : OK plus
Fleet size: 11 (+ 7 orders)
Aims: National and international
Website: www.czechairlines.de

Czech Airlines ( Company : Czech Airlines as , earlier also briefly ČSA , Czech for "Czech aviation lines AG") is a Czech airline based in Prague and hub on the Prague Airport and a member of the airline alliance SkyTeam .

history

Foundation and first years

ČSA Airspeed Envoy, 1936
A former ČSA logo

ČSA was founded on July 29, 1923 as the state aviation company of Czechoslovakia under the name Československé státní aerolinie and entered in the company register. This makes it the fifth oldest airline in the world that is still active today. The first airline Prague - Bratislava was symbolically opened on October 28, 1923 with an Aero A-14 (licensed by Hansa-Brandenburg CI ). The first regular flight of the pilot Karel Brabenec with the passenger Vaclav König and some post (760 grams) took place one day later. By the end of the year, 29 people had been transported. At first, converted former military aircraft were used. ČSA used Prague-Kbely as a base until the opening of Ruzyně Airport in 1937 . In the spring of 1924, the Prague- Košice route was opened with the Aero A.10 , the first Czechoslovak airliner. The first civil airfields in Brno , Marienbad and Bratislava were built in 1925/26 .

Aero had flown the Prague-Marienbad line with the A.22 since 1925. In 1927 this was taken over by the ČSA. On January 22, 1927, in parallel with ČSA, Škoda AG founded Československá letecka společnost (ČLS), which took over the international routes until 1930, while ČSA limited itself to the domestic route network. Domestic aircraft such as Eros A.35 and A.38 were used here, but foreign ones such as the British De Havilland DH.50 were also used . The ČLS remained a partner of the ČSA until the end of the 1930s.

In 1929 ČSA was admitted to the IATA . A year later, on July 1, 1930, the first international route to Zagreb , later extended to Sušak and known as the Jadranský Express (Adriaexpress), was opened. In the 1930s, further international routes were added. The Avia F-VIIb / 3m (license built by Fokker F.VIIb / 3m ) flew the Košice - Bucharest route from 1933 . British Airspeed Envoy operated on the Prague- Moscow route from September 1936 . In return, Aeroflot flew with PS-35 from Moscow to Prague. Later, Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.73 and US Douglas DC-2 and DC-3 were purchased for the longer routes . At the beginning of April, flight operations with the Prague-Brussels connection from the newly established Prague-Ruzyně airport began. In May 1937, ČSA opened international routes to Italy.

In 1938, ČSA and ČLS together had a flight network of 2,638,729 kilometers. After the occupation by Germany , both companies were dissolved and the aircraft fleet and airfields were integrated into Deutsche Lufthansa .

After the Second World War

An Ilyushin Il-12 of the ČSA in 1957

After the end of the war, the ČSA was re-established on September 14, 1945, this time under the name Československé aerolinie and provisional flight operations with three German Junkers Ju 52s on the Prague-Brno-Bratislava route resumed. By 1946, the former Douglas C-47 and DC-3 transporters were added, which Avia had converted to civil aircraft. From March 1946, Zurich and Paris were the first international destinations, and several routes to Western Europe were added in the following months. The Prague-Cairo and Prague-Ankara routes opened in April 1947 as the first intercontinental connections.

From 1949 the reorientation to Soviet technology took place. The Lissunow Li-2 and Ilyushin Il-12 replaced the machines used up until then, in the mid-1950s the Avia Av-14 license-built Il-14 and from 1960 Il-18 were added for longer distances . In 1957, jet propulsion with three Tu-104A was introduced at ČSA, which was initially used on the Prague – Moscow route and served the route to Cairo from 1958. In the meantime, they also flew to Brussels during the 1958 World's Fair . In the early 1960s, ČSA flew to 37 countries on four continents. From 1961 to 1969, long-haul aircraft of the type Bristol Britannia leased from Cubana with Czechoslovak aircraft registration numbers were also used, which were only replaced by Ilyushin Il-62 in 1969. In 1968 the route network comprised 49 connections with a total length of 87,403 km. With the increasing political ice age as part of the Cold War , many connections to Western Europe and the Near and Middle East were discontinued.

Agrolet and Slov-Air

As an offshoot for the agricultural and geological sector, after the takeover of the previously responsible charter airline Svitlet in 1951, Agrolet was founded as a subsidiary of ČSA with its headquarters in Bratislava. Its inventory included local K-65 Čáp , L-60 Brigadýr and Z-37 Čmelák , Soviet An-2 and, two years later, helicopters of the Mi-1 , SM-2 and Ka-26 types . There were bases in Prague-Ruzyně (with shipyard), Košice , Bratislava and Holešov. This resulted in Slov-Air on July 1, 1969 , which, in addition to special tasks such as aerial photography, patient transport (with Aero 45 and L-200 Morava ) or pest control, also had a small domestic flight operation with short-haul Let L-410 aircraft (" air taxi "). Slov-Air also carried out missions abroad, such as agricultural flights to protect cotton crops in Sudan in 1971 . In 1968, with the introduction of the Mi-8 rotary wing aircraft, the company also added crane flights to its repertoire, some of which were also carried out with the support of Interflug helicopters .

ČSA in the jet age

An Ilyushin Il-62 of the ČSA

In 1957, ČSA became the only export customer for the Tu-104 and thus entered the jet age. On December 15, 1964, the Prague- Frankfurt am Main line was opened with the Tu-124 . Prague-Ruzyně airport was reopened on June 15, 1968, and Bratislava airport two years later. The long-haul airliner Ilyushin Il-62 operated on international routes from 1969 . In May 1970, with Montreal and New York , transatlantic airports were served for the first time. In the early 1970s, ČSA said it carried 1.5 million passengers and 25,000 tons of cargo.

After the end of the Soviet Union

A Boeing 737-400 of the ČSA
The headquarters of Czech Airlines in Prague

In the 1990s, all Soviet aircraft were replaced by western models, for example by Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 , and western airports were also used again. In 1990 routes to Hamburg and Mexico City were opened, and Tel Aviv and Istanbul were added in 1991. In June 1992 ČSA was privatized, 19.1% of the shares went to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development , another 19.1% to Air France , 49.3% to the National Wealth Fund (Fond Národního majetku), the rest to small Owner. In addition, the route network was expanded to Chicago, Bahrain, Toronto, Manchester, Düsseldorf, Lemberg, Riga and Vienna. After financial turbulence at the end of 1993, the Czech government took over the shares of Air France in March 1994.

After the dismembration of Czechoslovakia , the airline took over its name ČSA Czech Airlines in May 1995 , the name component ČSA faded into the background more and more in the following years and is no longer officially written out in 2013.

Development since 2000

The airline alliance SkyTeam named Czech Airlines a member on October 18, 2000. The Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic (56.92%) and the Czech consolidation agency Český Aeroholding (43.59%) were the main shareholders. In March 2007 ČSA employed 5440 people.

On September 14, 2007, Czech Airlines presented its new corporate identity to the public. The first aircraft with the new livery ( OK-DGL ) was repainted in Southend in mid-October and handed over on October 15, 2007.

The click4sky brand was launched by Czech Airlines on September 17, 2007 to compete with low-cost airlines. Click4sky sold Czech Airlines tickets at fixed prices exclusively on the Internet.

On March 23, 2009, it was announced that both Air France-KLM and Aeroflot were interested in the takeover of Czech Airlines, with the Czech government halting sales negotiations in November 2009 as the last remaining buyer offered Travel Service only 40 million euros.

The subsidiary Holidays Czech Airlines was founded in June 2010 and since then has operated charter flights to European holiday destinations with its own corporate identity and its own fleet .

The last Boeing 737s left the Czech Airlines fleet in January 2013 . On April 10, 2013, Skyteam member Korean Air took over the almost 44% stake in the Czech consolidation agency for the equivalent of 2.6 million euros. Travel Service took over 34% of the shares in March 2015. On October 6, 2017, Travel Service also acquired the 44% stake in Korean Air and a further 20% from other shareholders, bringing the total stake to 97.7%.

Due to the crisis in Ukraine in 2014 , Czech Airlines had far fewer passengers from the successor states of the Soviet Union . For this reason, the airline announced on September 24, 2014 that it would shut down six Airbus A320s, lay off 36% of its staff and cut the wages of the remaining staff. In 2017 the connections to Ukraine and Russia were expanded again. Connections to Bratislava and Ostrava were suspended at the end of 2018 .

Destinations

Czech Airlines serves several destinations within the Czech Republic as well as numerous metropolises in Europe and Asia, for example Paris , Rome , Madrid and Moscow . Some long-haul flights, such as to New York , Toronto and Montreal , have since been suspended. In Germany there are flights to Berlin , Düsseldorf , Frankfurt and Hamburg . Braunschweig is also served in the shuttle service . The connections to Cologne / Bonn and Munich were discontinued in October 2010. The connection to Hanover operated with an ATR 42 was discontinued for the 2012/2013 winter flight schedule. However, the connection to Munich was resumed for the 2013 summer flight schedule. In addition, since the beginning of the 2013 summer flight schedule, Czech Airlines has once again offered long-haul flights to Seoul , the home base of SkyTeam partner Korean Air . This goal was set in 2020.

fleet

Current fleet

An Airbus A319-100 from Czech Airlines
An ATR 42-500 from Czech Airlines

As of April 2020, the Czech Airlines fleet consists of 12 aircraft with an average age of 14.3 years:

Aircraft type number ordered Remarks Seats Average age

(April 2020)

Airbus A220-300 4th 149
Airbus A319-100 4th are partially replaced by A220 and A321XLR; OK-NEP in City-of-Prague - special livery; three machines in use for Eurowings by wet lease by summer 2020 135 11.2 years
Airbus A320-200 1 17.6 years
Airbus A321XLR 3 instead of A320neo 195
Boeing 737-800 1 operated by SmartWings ; with winglets fitted 189 10.1 years
ATR 72-500 5 OK-GFR in Skyteam special livery 70 16.0 years
total 11 7th 14.3 years

Former aircraft types

The following types of aircraft were also used before:

Incidents

From 1945 to the present (as of September 2019) the company had to record 33 total losses of aircraft, of which 21 were fatal with a total of 550 fatalities. Examples:

  • On November 24, 1956, an Ilyushin Il-12 of the ČSA ( aircraft registration OK-DBP ) crashed , probably due to engine problems, 13 kilometers after take-off from Zurich-Kloten Airport , only 500 m from the southern outskirts of Wasterkingen , into an agricultural area . All 23 passengers and crew members died.
  • On June 1, 1970, after two failed attempts to approach runway 18, a ČSA ( OK-NDD ) Tupolev Tu-104 A crashed at Tripoli Airport when the pilots made a third attempt from the opposite direction. In this CFIT ( controlled flight into terrain ) all 13 people on board were killed, ten crew members and three passengers.
  • On August 20, 1975 at 1:13 local time (23:13 UTC on August 19) an Ilyushin Il-62 of the ČSA (OK-DBF) was flown off-road on the scheduled flight from Prague via Damascus ( Syria ) to Tehran . On the approach to the stopover in Damascus, the aircraft flew into a hill approx. 17 kilometers from the runway in good weather. Errors in the setting of the altimeter are believed to be the cause . In this CFIT ( Controlled flight into terrain ), 126 of the 128 people on board were killed, including the Polish theater director Konrad Swinarski .

See also

Web links

Commons : Czech Airlines  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annual report 2018
  2. ↑ Annual report 2015
  3. ↑ aerosecure.de: The 10 oldest airlines in the world
  4. ^ Heinz AF Schmidt (ed.) The ČSA, the aviation company of the friendly Czechoslovak Republic. In: Flieger-Jahrbuch 1960 , Transpress, Berlin 1959, p. 42
  5. ↑ Aerosport No. 7/1968 (section air traffic ), p. 259
  6. ^ Emil Gerhát: Slov-Air . In: Flieger-Jahrbuch 1972 . Transpress, Berlin 1971, p. 74-77 .
  7. ↑ Ditmar Hauer: ČSA at the highest level. In: Flieger Revue 5/1994. P. 14
  8. ↑ airliners.de: Air France / KLM wants to buy Czech Airlines
  9. ↑ FlugRevue December 2009, p. 16, no CSA sale for the time being
  10. ↑ holidayscsa.com - about us ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) accessed on June 14, 2011  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.holidayscsa.com
  11. ↑ ch-aviation.ch - CSA completes B737-500 retirement (English) January 17, 2013
  12. ↑ airliners.de: Korean Air purchases from Czech Airlines for 2.6 million euros. dated April 12, 2013.
  13. ↑ Travel Service odkoupil třetinu akcií ČSA , Novinky.cz, March 31, 2015
  14. ↑ Travel Service ovládne ČSA , Novinky.cz, October 6, 2017
  15. ↑ a b c Airline ČSA is on the upswing in 2017 , Český rozhlas , January 11, 2019
  16. ↑ Czech Airlines laid off 36 percent of its staff due to the Ukraine crisis , accessed on September 25, 2014
  17. ↑ [Article] CSA Czech Airlines. Aviation Club Braunschweig Forum, accessed on June 30, 2017 .
  18. ↑ http://www.airliners.de/verkehr/netzwerkplanung/csa-neu-nach-muenchen/28638
  19. ↑ http://www.austrianaviation.net/news-international/news-detail/date/2013/05/31/csa-nnahm-a330-in-betrieb.html
  20. ↑ a b CSA is the only long-haul aircraft. In: aerotelegraph.com. May 1, 2020, accessed July 28, 2020 .
  21. ↑ a b Czech Airlines (CSA) Fleet Details and History. In: planespotters.net. April 22, 2020, accessed on April 22, 2020 (English).
  22. ↑ Order for A321 XLR and A220: Czech Airlines goes long-haul with the A321 XLR. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. October 23, 2019, accessed on October 23, 2019 (Swiss Standard German).
  23. ↑ Order for A321 XLR and A220: Czech Airlines goes long-haul with the A321 XLR. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. October 23, 2019, accessed on October 23, 2019 (Swiss Standard German).
  24. ↑ Order for A321 XLR and A220: Czech Airlines goes long-haul with the A321 XLR. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. October 23, 2019, accessed on October 23, 2019 (Swiss Standard German).
  25. ↑ OK-NEP Eurowings Airbus A319-100. In: planespotters.net. June 26, 2019, accessed July 7, 2019 .
  26. ↑ Eurowings will continue to rely on Czech Airlines until the summer. In: airlines.de. January 3, 2020, accessed April 22, 2020 .
  27. ↑ Order for A321 XLR and A220: Czech Airlines goes long-haul with the A321 XLR. In: aeroTELEGRAPH. October 23, 2019, accessed on October 23, 2019 (Swiss Standard German).
  28. ^ OK-GFR Czech Airlines (CSA) ATR 72. In: planespotters.net. July 3, 2019, accessed on July 7, 2019 .
  29. ^ Ulrich Klee, Frank Bucher et al .: jp airline-fleets international . Zurich Airport 1966–2007.
  30. ^ Ulrich Klee, Frank Bucher et al .: jp airline-fleets international . Sutton, UK, 2008-2013.
  31. ↑ Accident statistics CSA , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on October 23, 2019.
  32. ↑ Air-Britain Archive: Casualty Compendium (English) Part 69, June 1998 pp. 98/55.
  33. ^ Accident report IL-12 OK-DBP , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 20, 2017.
  34. ^ Accident report TU-104 OK-NDD , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 19, 2016.
  35. ^ Accident report IL-62 OK-DBF , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on June 24, 2020.
Flag of the Czech Republic.svg Airlines from the Czech Republic


Current

ABS Jets • Czech Airlines • G-JET • Silver Air • Smartwings • Van Air Europe

Former

Air Fischer • ABA Air • Blue Air Moravia • Charter Air • Central Connect Airlines • Czech Connect Airlines • Fischer Air • Holidays Czech Airlines • Travel Service

Members of SkyTeam
Members

Aeroflot • Aerolíneas Argentinas • Aeroméxico • Air Europa • Air France • Alitalia • China Airlines • China Eastern • Czech Airlines • Delta Air Lines • Garuda Indonesia • Kenya Airways • KLM Royal Dutch Airlines • Korean Air • Middle East Airlines • Saudi Arabian Airlines • TAROM • Vietnam Airlines • Xiamen Airlines

Former

China Southern Airlines • Continental Airlines • Copa Airlines • Northwest Airlines