One of the world’s oldest airlines is disappearing from the skies
It is the end of the road for one of the world’s oldest airlines. Czech Airlines has announced its final service will be on October 26 before it is absorbed by another Czech airline, Smartwings. Formed in 1923 as Czechoslovak State Airlines, it is the fifth-oldest airline in the world behind KLM (1919), Colombia’s Avianca (1919), Qantas (1920), and Soviet/Russian Aeroflot (1923). At one stage it was one of the biggest airlines in Eastern Europe. But mismanagement and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic saw services drastically reduced. It currently operates just two routes from Prague’s Václav Havel Airport - Paris and Madrid, using its two A320s. They will be rebranded into Smartwings’ livery and the iconic flight code of ‘OK’ will be replaced with ‘QS’ . Smartwings currently operates an all- Boeing 737 fleet.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-10-01/sky/one-of-the-world2019s-oldest-airlines-is-disappearing-from-the-skies
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/logo.png
One of the world’s oldest airlines is disappearing from the skies
It is the end of the road for one of the world’s oldest airlines. Czech Airlines has announced its final service will be on October 26 before it is absorbed by another Czech airline, Smartwings. Formed in 1923 as Czechoslovak State Airlines, it is the fifth-oldest airline in the world behind KLM (1919), Colombia’s Avianca (1919), Qantas (1920), and Soviet/Russian Aeroflot (1923). At one stage it was one of the biggest airlines in Eastern Europe. But mismanagement and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic saw services drastically reduced. It currently operates just two routes from Prague’s Václav Havel Airport - Paris and Madrid, using its two A320s. They will be rebranded into Smartwings’ livery and the iconic flight code of ‘OK’ will be replaced with ‘QS’ . Smartwings currently operates an all- Boeing 737 fleet.<br/>
