Czech Airlines

William Malcolm

Czech Airlines Orders 7 Airbus Aircraft

Czech Airlines (CSA) will acquire seven new aircraft from Airbus, four A220-300 aircraft, and three longer-range A321XLR aircraft. The carrier will include the first two aircraft in its fleet next year and will receive additional planes in 2021 and 2025. The transaction price was not disclosed.

 

“The first two Airbus A220s will be in the fleet by the end of 2020, and the next A220 will be delivered to CSA in the first and second quarters of 2021. Deliveries of long-range A321XLR aircraft are scheduled for 2025,” said Smartwings, CSA’s parent company. Smartwings negotiated with Airbus to acquire new aircraft for CSA for several months.

 

CSA chairman Petr Kudela said that “thanks to a completely new cabin layout, the aircraft offers the highest possible level of comfort in its class, even on long flights.” According to Airbus sales director Christian Scherer, the A321XLR has the most extended range of the A320 family, allowing for more comfortable travel, while CSA will benefit from significantly lower fuel consumption when expanding its network.

 

The CSA fleet now consists of 14 aircraft, and the airline offers flights to dozens of destinations in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Most CSA’s flights operate in cooperation with the parent company Smartwings of the Smartwings Group fleet, of which CSA is a part.

 

Smartwings is having difficulties with its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, which were banned by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) due to an accident in Ethiopia in March. Smartwings has seven of these aircraft.

 

Smartwings Group is majority-owned by Unimex Group of Jiří Šimáň and Jaromír Šmejkal.