In the first six months of this year, Czech Airlines transported on its regular scheduled routes a total of 1.174 million passengers, which represents a year-on-year improvement of nearly 22%, as the carrier transported a total of 963 thousand passengers during the same period of the previous year.
Czech Airlines was also able to keep its aircraft fuller. In the first half of the year, the average load factor reached 81%, which is a year-on-year improved result of 11%.
More than 170 thousand additional passengers were transported by Czech Airlines on charter flights and flights for other air carriers to whom the company leases its aircraft, including crew. Czech Airlines also managed to improve other selected transport indicators in the first half of 2017. The number of operated return flights has grown year-on-year by 7%, the number of Available Seat Kilometres (ASK) by 4% and the number of Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPK) by 21%, while the use of the fleet remained unchanged when compared with the previous year.
“Our transport results were significantly influenced by the favourable European economic situation and global growth in demand for air transport. Almost all markets in which we are active have grown year-on-year, with the greatest increases experienced in the Western European markets and in Russia. Thanks to the stabilisation of the Russian market, we have improved our results on routes to/from destinations in Russia by almost 1/3, year-on-year,” Jozef Sinčák, Chairman of the Czech Airlines Board of Directors, said, adding: “Our improved transport results were also fuelled by the introduction of new, economically smart price packages last December, the expansion of our fleet by another ATR 72 aircraft, the launch of several new routes and increases in frequencies on many existing routes.”
This March, Czech Airlines expanded its fleet by another ATR 72-500 aircraft. The carrier currently operates 18 aircraft as follows: 1 Airbus A330, 9 Airbus A319, 5 ATR 72 and 3 ATR 42 aircraft.
In the 2017 summer season, Czech Airlines operates regular scheduled connections to 50 destinations in 25 countries worldwide. This year, Czech Airlines has launched operations on new routes to Aarhus, Lisbon, Reykjavik-Keflavik and Verona. Year-on-year, the carrier has increased the number of its flights on routes to/from Amsterdam, Beirut, Birmingham, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Malta, Nice, Odessa, St. Petersburg, Pisa and Zagreb, while introducing a second daily frequency on its Stockholm – Prague route.
Daniel Šabík
Czech Airlines Spokesperson
