Prague, 2015-2-17 — /Travel PR News/ — Up to 19 new destinations and 25 regular scheduled connections are planned by Czech Airlines for the upcoming summer season. Alongside flights from Prague to Billund, Bilbao, Bologna, Cork and Oslo, which the carrier announced last autumn, Czech Airlines is also planning to operate flights to Athens, Bordeaux, Liverpool, Porto and Stavanger, and to launch regular connections to Venice, Kristiansand, Växjö, Linköping, Poznan, Gdansk, Stuttgart and several additional routes from Stuttgart to the south-west of Europe. The company will also introduce new and easier tariff packages with unified conditions, favouring its OK Plus frequent flyer programme members. Czech Airlines will operate 48 destinations in 24 countries throughout the 2015 summer season; together with its partners, the carrier will service more than 120 destinations in 50 countries.
“Expanding our transport network will allow us to use the fleet more efficiently, primarily our ATR aircraft which will be used to service more than half of the new routes,” explained Jozef Sinčák, Chairman of the Czech Airlines Board of Directors, adding: “Concurrently, we have been relocating the capacity freed in the Russian market which has been experiencing a significant drop in demand for travel to the Czech Republic and Europe.” For this reason, the carrier has also reconsidered its planned launch of operations on two new routes to Russia, to Kazan and Kaliningrad, originally planned for this summer season. The launch, together with renewal of the seasonal flights to Perm and Ufa, was postponed by Czech Airlines until the 2016 summer season.
New Connections Operated Year-Round
Czech Airlines plans to use Airbus A319 aircraft to service the following, year-round-operated routes: Liverpool (twice weekly from 18 May) and Oslo (up to four times a week from 30 March), while Billund (four times a week from 30 March), Bologna (four times a week from 29 March), Poznan, Gdansk (both four times a week from 25 May) and Stuttgart (three times a week from 26 May) will be serviced by ATR aircraft. The Poznan and Gdansk flights will be operated similarly to the Prague–Bratislava–Košice and Prague–Hamburg–Gothenburg models, i.e. as the Prague–Poznan–Gdansk route (also in reverse order).
Czech Airlines plans to launch up from Stuttgart, the capital of the Baden-Württemberg region, new regular connections to Prague (three times a week), Bologna (three times a week), Geneva (five times a week) and Marseille (four times a week), designed for both corporate and leisure clientele. The Poznan and Gdansk flights will be operated similarly to the Prague–Hamburg–Gothenburg model, i.e. as the Stuttgart–Geneva–Marseille route (also in reverse order)
New Seasonal Connections
Flights to Bilbao (twice weekly from 1 June), Bordeaux (twice weekly from 4 June), Cork (twice weekly from 14 May) and Porto (twice weekly from 18 May) will only be offered in the summer season and operated by A319 aircraft, as are flights to Athens (up to four times a week from 3 May) and Stavanger (twice weekly from 21 May). Based on the demand experienced, Czech Airlines will consider launching year-round operations on the last two routes.
The planned connections to Venice (three times a week from 1 July) and Kristiansand in Norway (twice weekly from 2 July), Växjö and Linköping in Sweden (twice weekly as one route: Prague-Växjö-Linköping and back from 29 June) as well as the new direct flights to Gothenburg (twice weekly from 29 June) without a stop-over in Hamburg will be operated by ATR aircraft during the summer break months, i.e. in July and August. The Venice connection has been primarily designed for Czech tourists heading to the most visited Italian city, while the flights from Norway and Sweden are designed for incoming tourism, bringing clients to Prague and the Czech Republic.
Ten New Code-Shared Destinations with Travel Service
The mutually beneficial co-operation with Travel Service on a code-share basis will also continue during the upcoming 2015 summer season. Thanks to this co-operation, Czech Airlines can offer its customers additional ten new services, such as flights to the following holiday destinations: Faro in Portugal, Funchal in Madeira, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Podgorica in Monte Negro, Preveza and Samos island in Greece, Tirana in Albania, Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and London-Gatwick. The above-listed routes will be operated by Travel Service under its SmartWings brand and Czech Airlines will have its OK code for all flights. Both carriers have also planned to include the new SmartWings’ connection to Moscow in their code-share co-operation, while Travel Service will receive its code for some of the new Czech Airlines’ routes.
Czech Airlines has already launched ticket sales to the majority of its new destinations. Tickets for flights to Venice, Kristiansand, Växjö, Linköping, Poznan, Gdansk and Stuttgart as well as flights from Stuttgart to Bologna, Geneva and Marseille will be launched today.
Czech Airlines to Simplify and Unify its Tariff Packages, Reducing their Number from Five to Three
Effective 25 February 2015, Czech Airlines switches from the current five to three new tariff packages:Standard, Flexi and Business. This step will allow passengers to combine reservation classes of flight segments in one direction of their journey or even use a different tariff package for the return flight. They will also be able to enjoy additional services even as part of the lowest tariff class. The next innovation will be appreciated mainly by travellers with tickets from the lowest tariff class who will now be able to change their issued tickets. Changing tickets prior to the scheduled departure will cost them the equivalent of EUR 60, while changes after the scheduled date of departure will be available for EUR 100. Travellers holding tickets for Flexi and Business tariff classes will be offered this option without extra charge.
Together with the transition to three tariff packages, Czech Airlines will also cancel the so-called minimum stay condition for all destinations where the structure of one-way tariffs was introduced last year, which is 90% of all destinations serviced by the carrier. Czech Airlines has also unified discounts for children in all tariff classes. The carrier will provide 90% discount for infants (0-2 years of age) and 25% discount for children (2-12 years of age), now also in the lowest tariff class. Alongside the changes, the carrier is introducing a unified safety-fuel surcharge for all infants equal to EUR 3 per segment flown.
OK Plus Frequent Flyer Programme Members’ Benefits
Alongside the change to three tariff packages, Czech Airlines is also introducing a new rule for baggage transport. Passengers travelling with tickets issued under the Standard class will now be able to carry on board one piece of baggage, weighing a maximum of 8 kg, customers holding tickets under the Flexi class will be able to bring one carry-on, weighing a maximum of 12 kg, while Business class tariff holders will be able to take on board two pieces of baggage, weighing together a maximum of 12 kg.
According to the new transport rules, members of the OK Plus Frequent Flyer Programme travelling with Czech Airlines in Economy Class can still check in a minimum of one piece of baggage of up to 23 kg in weight. The same rules will also apply to clients on routes to Barcelona, Brussels, Bucharest, Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris, Seoul, Warsaw and to all destinations in Russia and CIS countries. Non-members of the OK Plus Frequent Flyer Programme holding the lowest tariff package tickets, i.e. Standard class tickets, travelling to all other destinations, will be able to check in one piece of baggage of up to 15 kg in weight free of charge.
Passengers with Flexi tariff class tickets, irrespective of OK Plus Programme membership, will now be able to check in two pieces of baggage, each of up to 23 kg in weight. Business Class passengers will also be able to check in two pieces of baggage, but each of up to 32 kg in weight. OK Plus Programme Silver, Gold and Platinum card holders will be able to check in an additional piece of baggage above the scope of their respective tariff limit free of charge.
Effective the start of the 2015 summer season, Czech Airlines will also improve the system of calculating the miles and segments of OK flights included in the programme. In the past, passengers with OK tickets under the lowest reservation class did not receive any miles and segments under the programme. Now Czech Airlines awards these clients with 20% of miles and 0.5% of the segment value per segment flown. In the Flexi tariff package, the carrier will increase the mile count to 175% and the segment count to 1.5 times. In the Business Class tariff, we will now award twice the miles and segments, thus motivating our clients to purchase higher tariff class tickets and at the same time allowing faster achievement of preferential status in the programme, i.e. the Silver, Gold and Platinum OK Plus Programme card, than before.
Daniel Šabík
Czech Airlines Spokesperson