On 1 November, Czech Airlines (ČSA) will celebrate the sixty years since opening its regular flight connection between Prague and Copenhagen.
ČSA flew to the Danish metropolis for the first time on 1 November 1946, using the legendary Dakota DC-3 airplane.
Nowadays, ČSA is using the modern, 162-passenger Boeing 737 aircraft. “Over the first half of the year alone, 44,910 passengers used our Copenhagen service. That means an increase of 14.3 per cent, compared to the same period last year,” said Olga Havlasová, Director, ČSA Copenhagen, on the occasion of the service’s 60th anniversary. Over the past year, ČSA carried more than 80,000 passengers between Prague and Copenhagen.
The ČSA service to Copenhagen is used primarily by entrepreneurs and managers. More than 20 per cent of the passengers connect from Prague to the Middle East and South-Eastern Europe. Recently, the connecting flights to Sarajevo or Sofia have been most in demand.
[GADS_NEWS]“In 1946, the year of the opening of the Copenhagen service, new connections to a number of other destinations were opened, for example to London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Paris, Bucharest, Brussels, Stockholm, Belgrade, or Warsaw. The ČSA network has only seen a similar expansion in 1992 and 2004,” noted Marie Macounová, Vice President for Product Development, in speaking about the air travel development of sixty years ago.
Presently, ČSA offers 13 weekly flights from Prague to Copenhagen. On business days and Saturdays, ČSA airplanes leave Prague for Copenhagen at 7:20 in the morning and again at 17:00, to return at 9:30 and 19:10 respectively. On Sundays, ČSA only offers an evening flight returning to Prague the next morning.
The Danish metropolis lies on the eastern shore of Sjaelland Island, and partially on Amager Island. Since 2000, Copenhagen has been connected to the Swedish city of Malmö via the eight-kilometre Oresund Bridge. The population of Copenhagen is about 1.2 million. In visiting the Danish metropolis, tourists should not miss the port, or the city’s symbol – the Little Mermaid, nor Kastellet Fortress, the Amalienborg Royal Palace, and many other sights. Many tourists may also be drawn by the fact that two famous breweries reside in Copenhagen: Carlsberg and Tuborg.
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Czech Airlines (ČSA) – the largest national carrier of the new EU member countries according to the number of passengers carried. In 2005, the airline carried a record of more than 5 million passengers. Since 2001, it has been a member of SkyTeam, one of the leading global airline alliances. ČSA currently offers connections to 120 destinations in 45 countries worldwide. The fleet contains 50 aircraft – ATR 42’s/72’s, Boeing 737’s and Airbus A310/A320/A321’s.
For the last three years, ČSA has been selected as the “Best Airline Based in Central/Eastern Europe – 2004, 2005 and 2006”. This title is awarded annually by the Official Airline Guide (OAG) and is based on the votes of frequent business travellers.
In January 2006, Czech Airlines also won the “Best Airline in Eastern Europe” Award (the Annual GT Tested Awards) for a second year running. ČSA was also on the shortlist of the eight best world airlines in 2005.
