Czech Airlines

Two letters stood for Czech aviation for decades: OK. They were on ČSA’s tails, in the flight numbers and in front of every registration. Czech Airlines – for a long time Československé aerolinie – was the country’s airline for over 100 years, from the first biplane flight to Bratislava to the last Airbus from Paris in October 2024. Here you learn where ČSA came from, which aircraft shaped it, how the end played out and where you can still find its traces today.

Czech Airlines at a glance

Czech Airlines was a historic national airline – first of Czechoslovakia, from 1993 of the Czech Republic. It was founded on October 6, 1923 by the government in Prague as Československé státní aerolinie, ČSA for short. That made it one of the oldest airlines in the world; before its end it was considered the fifth-oldest airline still flying.

Its home was Prague: first Kbely airfield, later today’s Prague Airport in Ruzyně, which has borne the name of Václav Havel since 2012. From there ČSA connected the country with Europe and at times with North America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

After the end of communism the airline was privatized, changed owners several times, shrank and went insolvent in 2021. On October 26, 2024 the last own scheduled flight landed. Since then Smartwings has operated the flights – but some Airbus jets still wear ČSA colors.

Codes and callsigns

• IATA code OK: appeared in the flight numbers, for example on the last flight OK767. The code was also a trademark and from 1975 even adorned the tail.
• ICAO code CSA: the three-letter identifier in the flight plan and on trackers.
• Callsign CSA LINES: this is how the crews called in on the radio.
• Registration OK-: The fleet was registered in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. The country received the prefix OK in 1929. How registrations are structured in general is explained in the guide Understanding aircraft registrations.

Important for old records: a flight number with “OK” from before the end of October 2024 belongs to ČSA. After that, even the Airbus jets in ČSA colors fly under Smartwings’ code.

The history: from biplane to Tu-104

The early years 1923 to 1939

The first flight took place on October 29, 1923: an Aero A-14, an open biplane of Czech production with the identification L-BARC, took off from Prague-Kbely to Bratislava. Karel Brabenec was at the controls, and there was a single passenger on board, a journalist. Soon afterward the route was extended to Košice, and in 1930 Zagreb added the first international connection.

In the 1930s ČSA modernized its fleet with types such as the Fokker F.VII, Ford Trimotor, Savoia-Marchetti SM.73 and Douglas DC-2. With the German occupation this first phase ended: ČSA was dissolved, and aircraft and facilities went to the Lufthansa of the time.

Restart in 1945 and the road east

In September 1945 the airline resumed operations as Československé aerolinie, initially with Junkers Ju 52s and then with the Douglas DC-3. After the communist takeover in 1948, ČSA turned to Soviet types from 1949: Lisunov Li-2, Ilyushin Il-12 and Il-14, and later the four-engine Ilyushin Il-18.

A Cold War event also falls into this period: in 1950 crew members hijacked three ČSA DC-3s at the same time to Erding in Bavaria – one of the first mass hijackings of airliners.

Jet service pioneer

In 1957 ČSA entered the jet age with the Tupolev Tu-104A, as one of the first airlines in the world with jet aircraft in scheduled service. The first jet route led from Prague to Moscow. ČSA was the only export customer of the Tu-104 – otherwise the type flew practically only with Aeroflot. You can read more about the types of this era in the overview of Soviet airliners.

From 1964 to 1972 the smaller Tu-124 was also part of the fleet. Later the Tupolev Tu-134 and the Tu-154 shaped the European routes, while the Yakovlev Yak-40 served short domestic routes.

Across the Atlantic with the Il-62

The first transatlantic connection went to Havana on February 3, 1962 – with a leased Bristol Britannia from the Cuban state airline. The real long-haul leap came in 1969 with the Ilyushin Il-62. In 1970 ČSA started flights to New York and Montreal with it. Until 1997 the airline flew around 20 examples of the four-engine jet with its engines at the tail, including some Il-62Ms.

With the Il-62, ČSA reached destinations in Asia, Africa and the Americas nonstop. In the 1980s it was considered reliable, but burned noticeably more fuel than comparable Western jets – one of the reasons for the later fleet change.

After 1990: Airbus, Boeing and SkyTeam

With the end of the Eastern Bloc, ČSA quickly switched to Western aircraft. In the 1990s came the widebody Airbus A310, Classic-generation Boeing 737s such as the 737-400 and 737-500, and ATR 42 and ATR 72 turboprops. The Il-62 left the fleet in 1997.

Privatization began in 1992; Air France and the East European bank EBRD together took around 19 percent. After the split of Czechoslovakia it was officially called Czech Airlines from 1995. On October 18, 2000, ČSA became a full member of the SkyTeam alliance – together with partners such as Air France and Delta, and later also KLM from today’s Air France-KLM group.

In the 2000s the Airbus A320 family took over the main role: A319s, A320s and A321s flew the European network. The 737-500 left in 2008, and the last 737-400s followed in 2016. At times an A330-300 supplemented long-haul. In 2007 ČSA introduced a new look and launched the short-lived low-cost offshoot click4sky.

Ownership changes, insolvency and the end

The last two decades were marked by rounds of cost-cutting. In 2009 a first attempt to sell the state shares failed. In 2013 Korean Air came in with around 44 percent. From 2015 Travel Service – today’s Smartwings – bought in step by step and became majority owner in 2017.

The COVID crisis hit the already small airline hard. In 2020 the fleet shrank to a few aircraft, and insolvency proceedings began in February 2021. In June 2022 ČSA emerged from restructuring with new owners: Prague City Air held around 70 percent, Smartwings the rest. At that point ČSA itself flew only a few routes, mainly to Paris.

In spring 2024 the group announced that it would transfer flight operations entirely to Smartwings. On October 26, 2024, flight OK767 from Paris-Charles de Gaulle landed in Prague in the evening – the last own scheduled flight after more than 100 years. At the same time ČSA left SkyTeam, and the OK Plus frequent flyer program ended. Czech Airlines remained as a holding company that became the sole owner of Smartwings.

The story is thus one of the great European airline farewells of recent years – you can put it in context in the article on major airline failures in Europe. Since October 1, 2026, Czech Airlines and the Smartwings group have belonged to Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines; beforehand, LOT Polish Airlines had also bid for the group. According to Smartwings, both brands continue.

The fleet at a glance

For over a century ČSA flew types from Czechoslovakia, the West and the Soviet Union. This table helps you place old photos:

Type	Period at ČSA	Use	Spotter tip
Aero A-14	from 1923	First route Prague–Bratislava	Open biplane
Douglas DC-3	from the mid-1940s	Postwar Europe	Twin-engine taildragger
Ilyushin Il-14 / Il-18	from the 1950s	Europe, Middle East	Il-18 with four turboprop engines
Tupolev Tu-104A	from 1957	First jets, Prague–Moscow	Engines in the wing roots, glazed nose
Tupolev Tu-134 / Tu-154	from the early 1970s and in the 1980s respectively	Europe	Rear engines and T-tail
Ilyushin Il-62	1969–1997	Long-haul, New York, Montreal	Four rear engines
Airbus A310	1990s	Long-haul after the pivot to the West	Twin-engine widebody
Boeing 737-400/-500	1990s to 2016	Europe	Flattened engine nacelles
ATR 42 / ATR 72	from the 1990s	Regional and feeder routes	High-wing with two propellers
Airbus A319 / A320 / A321	from the 2000s	European network until 2024	Classic A320 family

How to tell the Airbus variants apart in photos is explained in the guide Telling the A318, A319, A320 and A321 apart. For the 737 generations, Telling the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart helps. And for the turboprops, take a look at Telling the ATR 42/72 and Dash 8 apart.

How to recognize ČSA

The livery is your best dating aid. Roughly, five phases can be distinguished:

• 1945 to the 1960s: bare metal with a blue cheatline.
• 1960s to 1975: white upper fuselage with a red line.
• From 1975: red line and the large “OK” or “OK JET” lettering on the tail – the best-known design from the Il-62 and Tu-154 era.
• 1993 to 2007: an additional blue line.
• From 2007: the modern look with a rounded triangle motif.

Since the end of 2024 there has been a peculiarity: the Airbus jets in ČSA colors, including the A320s OK-HEU and OK-IOO and several A220-300s, are operated by Smartwings. On the tracker you therefore no longer see them under CSA.

Accidents in ČSA history

Serious accidents are also part of the long history. From 1945 to 2024, ČSA lost over 30 aircraft by common tallies, and around 20 accidents claimed fatalities. The best known:

• Nuremberg, March 28, 1961: An Il-18 broke up in the air, and all 52 people on board died.
• Gander, September 5, 1967: An Il-18 crashed on takeoff in Newfoundland, killing 37 people.
• Damascus, August 20, 1975: An Il-62 hit a hill on approach, and 126 of the 128 people on board died – ČSA’s worst accident.

ČSA today: museums and spots

In scheduled service the original ČSA no longer exists, but its aircraft do – mainly in the Czech Republic:

Aircraft	Registration	Location
Tupolev Tu-104A	OK-LDA	Prague-Kbely Aviation Museum
Ilyushin Il-18	OK-NAA	Prague-Kbely Aviation Museum
Tupolev Tu-104 in historic ČSA colors	OK-NDF	Zruč Aviation Museum near Pilsen
Ilyushin Il-18	OK-PAE	Zruč Aviation Museum near Pilsen
Ilyushin Il-62 with restaurant lettering	OK-FBF	Excalibur City shopping center on the Austrian border

Kbely is doubly interesting: this is where the ČSA story began in 1923 with the first flight. Tips for a visit are at the spot Letecké muzeum Kbely in Prague. If you then want to see current traffic, head to the viewing platform near Kněževes at Prague Airport – the Airbus jets in ČSA colors land there too. The guide Plane spotting in Prague summarizes all the locations around the airport.

The comparison with other Eastern Bloc airlines is also interesting: Interflug from East Germany, Malév from Hungary and LOT from Poland flew similar types and went through similar upheavals after 1990. Background on the East German airline is provided by the article Interflug.

Common mix-ups

• Confusing ČSA with Smartwings – an A320 in ČSA colors has flown for Smartwings since the end of 2024.
• Taking OK for a registration – OK is both the airline’s IATA code and the country’s registration prefix.
• Taking ČSA for a Slovak airline – the headquarters were always in Prague; Bratislava was only the destination of the first route.
• Taking every Tu-104 for ČSA – almost all Tu-104s flew with Aeroflot; ČSA was the only export customer.
• Thinking Czech Airlines has disappeared entirely – the brand lives on as a holding company and on some Airbus jets.

Conclusion

Czech Airlines was the airline of the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia for over 100 years. It flew jets early, brought the Il-62 to New York, switched resolutely to Airbus, Boeing and ATR after 1990 and was part of SkyTeam from 2000. After insolvency and changes of ownership, its own flight operations ended in October 2024. Today ČSA lives on in museums, on old slides and on some Smartwings Airbus jets – and if you read livery, type and registration together, you can place every photo with confidence.