The company has been limping financially since the pandemic, with trimmed operations and continued losses. Its routes and assets will be taken over and operated by discount carrier Smartwings, which owned 30% of the company.
Smartwings has changed Czech flight codes from OK to its own QS, and will be honoring all existing reservations, but Czech’s membership in the SkyTeam alliance will not continue, and its loyalty program has been terminated.
Czech had some unusual moments in its history, including being the world’s first airline to operate a major route, Prague to Moscow, as an all-jet service, and was also involved in the world’s first mass hijacking. That took place in 1950, when three Czech pilots landed their DC3s in Munich instead of Prague.
Image: Ondrej Bucek/Unsplash
