After a century, Czech Airlines (ČSA) will be ceasing its operations on 26 October. The flag carrier of the Czech Republic will be absorbed by Smartwings, another Czech airline after financial struggles and management issues proved too hard to overcome.
Having started out in 1923 as Czechoslovak State Airlines, Czech Airlines is effectively the fifth oldest airline in the world. Only Dutch KLM (1919), Colombian Avianca (1919), Australian Qantas(1920) and Soviet/Russian Aeroflot (1923) have been around for longer. During the twentieth century, the airline played an important role in connecting Eastern and Soviet Europe with the West and, by the 1980s it became one of the biggest airlines in Eastern Europe. Its final flight, arriving in Prague from Paris on 26 October, will thus mark the end of an aviation era.
Over the past few decades, the airline has been struggling. Those struggles began at the very beginning of the millennium after 9/11 but also increased due to the emergence of low-cost airlines and the Covid-19 pandemic. Internal mismanagement, especially when the airline was in the hands of businessman Jaroslav Tvrdík during the mid-2000s, may have played an even bigger role in putting an end to Czech Airlines. According to Miroslav Kůla, former President of Czech Airlines, Tvrdík was infamous for his extravagant spending and his unwise purchases, leaving the company in a peculiar position and eventually going bankrupt.
Currently, only two routes remain of what was once a flourishing business, between Prague Václav Havel Airport and Paris, and Prague Václav Havel Airport and Madrid. Its fleet consists of two Airbus A320-200s, which will be integrated into the Smartwings fleet, another Czech airline which is currently the most important one in the country.
