In the afternoon of Thursday, April 25th, a Boeing 737-800 from the Lithuanian carrier KlasJet landed in Prague, becoming the first in a series of leased foreign aircraft that Smartwings plans to add to its fleet for the summer. The aircraft, registered as LY-LOC (manufacturing number 33980, manufactured in 2007), arrived empty from Palermo, where it previously operated for Wizz Air. It begins its service in Prague, where it was joined by a second Boeing 737-800 from the same carrier on Saturday, April 27th. The aircraft, registered as LY-TFS (manufacturing number 37741, manufactured in 2008), arrived empty from Sofia.
Both aircraft have been deployed for Smartwings flights from Prague since May 1st.
Prepared By: Martin Bernict
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On Friday, May 3, 2024, an Airbus A320-214 registered OK-IOO was entered into the aircraft registry of the Czech Civil Aviation Authority. This is the aircraft that Czech Airlines leased to the Canadian carrier Air Transat at the end of January.It served in the colors of the Canadian carrier from February 13 to April 28 and was used for flights to destinations in the Caribbean under the registration C-GEXI. Still with its Canadian registration, it returned according to Flightradar24 data as flight TSC80 on Tuesday, April 30, from Toronto via Keflavik to Prague.
The registry indicates that the operator of the Airbus is now Czech Airlines. The plane was adorned with temporary Air Transat colors in Canada, and it returned from the lease in white paintscheme with red engines. Its Monday take-off to Madrid is expected in CSA colors.
Czech Airlines currently operates two Airbus A320s (OK-HEU and OK-IOO). In the autumn of this year, they are set to take delivery of their...
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Smartwings has added job advertisements to the career section on its website. The airline is currently hiring first officers (with or without type rating) for both Airbus A320 and Airbus A220 aircraft.
Details from the individual job postings indicate that the Czech carrier will need more personnel starting from winter 2024. The start of the contract for A320 pilots with or without type rating is winter 2024/25. A220 pilots with type rating will also begin their contracts in the winter 2024/25 period, while pilots without type rating will start between August 2024 and March 2025.
Smartwings currently does not operate any Airbus aircraft. Airbus aircraft are operated by their sister company, Czech Airlines, specifically two Airbus A320s (OK-HEU and OK-IOO). The same carrier also has a firm order for Airbus A220 aircraft. The first ordered aircraft is scheduled to arrive this autumn.
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- 2024-04-28 08:11
- Changes in routes
At regional airports in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the first summer charters are beginning to land, marking the start of the summer season.
The first summer charter took off from Košice at 3:45 in the morning on Friday. Charter flight 8944 operated by the Maltese subsidiary of Ukrainian SkyUp Airlines headed to Hurghada in Egypt. The flight was served by an Airbus A320 registered LZ-FSD (manufactured in 2008, serial number 3461), leased from Bulgaria by Fly2Sky and subleased by SkyUp Airlines Malta. Košice will offer 17 destinations in 11 countries during the summer season of 2024. New destinations include Tirana in Albania, Izmir in Turkey, Zakynthos and Patras in Greece, Podgorica in Montenegro, and charters to Mallorca are returning after some time.
The summer season has also kicked off in Pardubice. The first charter departed for Hurghada on Thursday morning. Smartwings, the airline operating this charter, plans to establish a base with one Boeing 737 at...
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- 2024-04-27 13:03
- Changes in routes
The sole aircraft of Czech Airlines currently located in Europe flew from Prague to Brno Thursday evening. It will have its base at Tuřany Airport during the summer season. It will operate on routes for its sister company, Smartwings. The Airbus A320 was deployed on a morning charter to Marsa Alam on Friday, and it flew to Hurghada in the afternoon.
Smartwings aircraft will operate on Czech Airlines routes from Prague to Paris and Madrid.
The second Czech Airlines aircraft remains on winter lease in Canada with Air Transat.
Prepared By: Martin Bernict
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- 2024-04-25 06:13
- Changes in routes
Czech travelers interested in holidaying in Egypt in December had to choose departures from Prague or abroad. However, with the onset of the winter flight schedule for 2024/25, this situation will change after many years. The Turkish Corendon Airlines will commence charter flights from Hurghada to České Budějovice on December 22, 2024. These charters are scheduled to operate until May 2025.
Other Czech regional airports are still awaiting year-round charter flights to Egypt. This applies to Brno, Ostrava, Pardubice, and Karlovy Vary.
Corendon Airlines is a major player in the European charter transport market. The group, originating from Turkey, has three sister airlines registered in Turkey, the Netherlands, and Malta. It operates Boeing 737-800s and 737 MAX aircraft. Since winter 2023, the airline has also been operating an Airbus A350-900 leased from Spanish carrier World2Fly.
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- 2024-04-23 07:15
- Changes in routes
The flight options from Prague to Portugal have shrunk to just two carriers. Smartwings and Eurowings also offer flights to the Portuguese islands.
In the summer flight schedule of 2024, airlines offer ten flights per week between Prague and Portuguese capital Lisbon. Low-cost carrier easyJet flies every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11:30. TAP Air Portugal, a member of the Star Alliance, operates daily. Flights depart at 19:30 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and at 13:30 on other days.
The second city on the Portuguese mainland with direct scheduled flights from Prague is Porto. easyJet, holding a monopoly on the Prague – Porto route, operates twice a week, every Wednesday (at 11:55) and Saturday (at 19:50).
In the past, Czech Airlines and Eurowings also offered flights from Prague to Portugal. Czech Airlines scaled back its Lisbon and Porto routes with the onset of the pandemic and did not reinstate them afterward. Eurowings opened a route to Faro in the summer o...
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- 2024-04-21 12:21
- Changes in routes
Just weeks before the start of the summer flight schedule, Wizz Air‘s reservation system had only been offering tickets from Prague to London (Gatwick) until the end of March. Everything suggested that this route would meet the same fate as the route to Bucharest—a cessation of operations.
However, the route will ultimately remain in operation during the summer flight schedule for 2024. Starting from May, flights will operate daily.
During the summer flight schedule for 2024, Wizz Air will offer flights from Prague to 10 destinations in five countries. Specifically, flights will be available to Larnaca, Kutaisi, Rome (Fiumicino), Tirana, Catania, Milan (Malpensa), Naples, Venice, and London (Gatwick and Luton). This represents a decrease by three destinations compared to last year's summer flight schedule, during which Wizz Air also flew to Yerevan and Varna, in addition to Bucharest.
In March 2024, Wizz Air transported more than 4,778,980 passengers, which is ha...
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- 2024-04-16 17:17
- Changes in routes
The phenomenon of exotic vacations with long-haul flights without stopovers arrived in the Czech Republic during the pandemic. Before that, travellers on vacation had to transfer flights or fly on narrow-body aircraft that typically made at least one stop along the way. We must also not forget the period before 2010 when Travel Service operated long-haul Boeing 767 flights from an Icelandic carrier for several seasons, and ÄŒSA (Czech Airlines) operated long-haul routes with Airbus A310s, including charter flights for travel agencies.
Last winter, foreign airlines provided direct long-haul flights to exotic destinations from Czech airports. These included Polish LOT, Italian Neos, and Spanish carrier World2Fly.
In the upcoming winter season, flights from the Spanish carrier will increase. Last winter, they operated the following charters:
Day
Route
Flight number
Tuesday
Bratislava – Praha – Santa Clara
8547...
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- 2024-04-16 06:56
- Changes in routes
In the summer flight schedule of 2024, Ryanair offers regular flights to fourteen Greek airports, specifically to Athens, Corfu, Chania, Heraklion, Kalamata, Kefalonia, Kos, Mykonos, Preveza, Rhodes, Santorini, Skiathos, Thessaloniki, and Zakynthos.
The Irish carrier's planes also fly to Greece from Prague. Three times a week to Corfu - every Monday (at 20:30), Wednesday (at 07:25), and Friday (at 17:00). Twice a week to Skiathos - every Tuesday (at 07:25) and Saturday (at 15:30), and three times a week to Rhodes - every Tuesday (at 17:00) and every Saturday (at 12:45) and Sunday (at 19:15). Brno, Ostrava, and Pardubice lack Ryanair's air connections to Greece.
The offer of neighbouring airports in neighbouring states is as follows: from Katowice to Athens (2x a week, every Wednesday and Sunday) and from Krakow to Athens, Corfu, Chania, Rhodes, and Thessaloniki.
The most extensive selection of Greek destinations offered by Ryanair is from Vienna. The airline flies from Schwechat to...
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