Czech Airlines (České aerolínie) is feeling the pinch and so is cutting back on many of its less lucrative flights, which, unfortunately, includes many flights from Slovakia.
Yesterday, the airline suddenly stopped the sale of tickets for flights from Bratislava, and it will stay that way until next March at least. The company plans to make use of the busy summer season, though.
The company issued a statement that it would be cancelling flights from Bratislava, Poprad and Zilina airports on economic grounds. According to SME daily, the airline cancelled flights to Amsterdam and Larnaca in Cyprus planned for today. The company is keeping its flights from Kosice to Prague open in line with the schedule, though, as these flights sell well.
Bratislava Airport is shocked by the sudden move, with sales director Tomas Kika complaining that it came out of the blue without notice, and worse is that it is just before the Christmas holidays.
The move has put many travellers out on a limb with Sme daily citing one travel agents as having up to 140 tickets that were cancelled today. All that most travellers can do is try to get their money back and get to their destinations in some other way.
Bratislava Airport is hoping one of the other airlines will jump in and make use of the hole left by Czech Airlines.
Let me first say , I believe the CSA Larnaca route was run in the hope that the Austrians would actually cross the border to fly to the holiday sunny isle . That is just not going to happen unless you make the flight 50% cheaper than flying from a local Austrian airport . QED . Czech Airlines was not set up to be a cheap airline model . Second , landing fees at a hub airports in Amsterdam, Paris CDG make it again prohibitive for Low Cost airlines to be encouraged to use the route …or anyone else for that matter and to make a profit . Slovaks just dont fly , they drive to such places, say 4/5 to a car, as company pdm`s make it more cost effective and profitable for the car owner !
Bratislava->Amsterdam is a route which can definitely be succesful, especially if reasonably priced. Both KLM and Austrian Airlines operate 4x daily flights from Vienna to Amsterdam with the minimum price for a return ticket at least 200 Euros. I use this return flight at least once per month as well as paying 45 Euros to a Bratislava taxi company for the ride down to Vienna Airport.
This is a route that is going to be largely used by business travellers but if the airline only offers flights on Tuesday / Thursday / Saturday then it is obviously not going to attract people who need flexible travel options.
I can’t speak for the Larnaca route, but I would suggest dropping that flight and putting resources into a daily flight from Bratislava to Amsterdam. To just cancel flights from one day to the next is a shocking way to treat passengers.
I TOLD YOU SO !
Hi
Do we know from when the flight stops?
All flights have been cancelled until the summer as of TODAY except Kosice – Prague.