Czech Airlines relaunches Manchester service

The Czech Republic's national carrier will resume flights between Manchester and Prague, offering connections to Russia and Ukraine.

Roman Orlik, regional manager for the UK, Oreland, Netherlands and Belgium, said: "The schedule has been set up to find the most convenient connections to destinations beyond Prague."

The government-owned carrier served the route until the winter of 2009, when it was stopped for "economic reasons". But Czech Airlines has now decided to bring it back because "Manchester is very important, especially as a catchment area for small and medium enterprises".

Orlik said the relaunch of the route comes at a time when the balance books are improving for the airline.

"The UK economy is back on track, so passengers are starting to fly again... Even without the Manchester route the airline's results are better than last year," he said.

Orlik added that the routes from the regional airports were those that really suffered.

"Last year we saw a huge decline in terms of passenger share from UK regions to Prague. I think we've reached the bottom, and we can see numbers slowly going up."

Sustaining yields still proves problematic, said Orlik, but the airline has managed to keep passengers numbers relatively high, and has been generating extra revenue through ancillary charges, such as duty free products.

The ongoing privatisation plan for the airline, which saw Air France in the running as a potential buyer last year, looks likely to be set aside until after the upcoming elections in May.

The airline is also under investigation by the European Commission over a CZK 2.5bn loan (€94bn) from the Czech government-owned bank Osinek. The EC could rule that the loan was a form of illegal state aid.

Orlik said: "By the end of April we should have a decision over whether the loan was appropriate or not. It is important for us what the decision will be, as it has an impact on the balance sheet and cash flow for the airline."

Czech Airlines reported a net loss of CZK1.83bn ($103m) in the first six months of 2009.

www.czechairlines.com