In July, Czech Airlines (ČSA) canceled all orders for new Airbus A220-300 and A321XLR aircraft. This follows from the regular monthly report on the status of Airbus orders and deliveries. Both four A220-300 aircraft and three A321XLR aircraft have disappeared from the list of orders, Zdopravy.cz reports. CSA has been in bankruptcy since March, at the beginning of June the Prague City Court allowed the reorganization of the indebted airline as part of insolvency proceedings.
The owner of CSA, the Smartwings group, did not comment on the matter. “CSA is in the process of judicial reorganization and we cannot comment on the business relations involved in the reorganization until the end of this process,” Smartwings spokeswoman Vladimíra Dufková told the server.
The carrier planned to replace the A220 aircraft with ATR turboprop aircraft, and wanted to use the A321XLR aircraft to return to long-distance transport, the server writes. According to the original plans, CSA was to take over the first A220 last year, and pilot training began. However, the purchase was stopped by a coronavirus pandemic, which almost paralyzed air traffic.
Airbus now orders the order of seven aircraft from CSA as canceled, the German server Aerotelegraph.com pointed out. In May, Airbus registered a claim of CZK 17 billion in insolvency proceedings with CSA for the A220-300 and A321XLR aircraft ordered.
CSA’s operations continue, the aim of the reorganization is to save the airlines. At the beginning of June, the insolvency court recognized the creditors’ claims against CSA for more than 821 million crowns, but this was not yet the final amount. In its own insolvency petition, Czech Airlines stated debts worth 1.8 billion crowns.