(in national
Airline company, based in
Prague . It is currently a member of the
SkyTeam alliance. The airline now connects to most major
European destinations and to transit points in
North America ,
Asia , the
Middle East and
North Africa and carries in excess of 2 million passengers each year. The airline runs a frequent flyer programme called the "OK Plus Frequent Flyer Programme". Its main base is
Ruzyně International Airport , Prague.
ČSA was founded on
October 6 ,
1923 by the Czechoslovak government as ČSA Československé Státní Aerolinie. Twenty-three days later, its first transport flight took place, flying between
Prague and
Bratislava . It operated only domestic services until its first international flight from Prague to Bratislava and
Zagreb in
1930 . After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in
1939 the development of the airline was terminated.
In
1948 the Communist party seized power in Czechoslovakia and suspended some western European and
Middle East routes and replaced much of the fleet with Soviet equipment. In
1957 ČSA became one of the world's first airlines to fly turbojet services, taking delivery of the first
Tupolev Tu-104A . Transatlantic services started on
3 February 1962 with a flight to
Havana . After the
Break Up of the Czechoslovak Federation the airline adopted the present title in May
1995 .
The airline is owned by the Czech National Property Fund (56.43%), Czech Consolidation Bank (34.49%) and other Czech institutions. It has 4,411 employees (at January 2005).
The CSA Czech Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (at February
2006 ):
The average age of CSA fleet is 9.9 years old in April 2006.
