Czech Airlines (ČSA), one of the five oldest airlines in the world, ceased operations after flight OK767 landed in Prague on 26 October.
The airline is now incorporated into local operator Smartwings, which plans to retain the ČSA logo and colours on the remaining four Czech Airlines aircraft.
The last flight landed at Prague’s Václav Havel Airport. One of Czech Airlines’ retired captains, Miloš Kvapil, said that “it hurts,” recalling that he spent some forty years with the company, describing it as “fantastic times, even during communism.” Kvapil had previously said he would not come to the airport to see the last flight because “it makes no sense.”
The company was founded as Czechoslovak Airlines on 6 October 1923 in the Czechoslovak Republic and is the oldest operating airline after KLM, Avianca, Qantas and Aeroflot. It was also one of the first companies in the world to introduce jet aircraft. Since 1995, following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, the company has been known as Czech Airlines.
Czech Airlines was sold to Korean Air in 2013, and after a failed attempt to revive the company in 2017, Smartwing Group became the owner. The airlines filed for bankruptcy after 2020 devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
