29 OCTOBER 1923

"...Suddenly we find ourselves in fog. We've lost orientation, not even the pilot can see. We're flying over                                         a village, the pilot is trying to find his way and is circling above the village. People are running out onto the village                                         green - a gaggle of geese, flapping frantically with their wings, is fleeing a monster bird. I don't care about                                         the journey, I'm beginning to speak to the villagers. I'm waving with one hand, then, with the other                                         - with both hands at once, and then I have the idea to shout, even the pilot can't hear me                                         but I'm shouting Glory, alleluia !"

Vaclav König EDITOR OF LIDOVE NOVINY AND THE ONLY PASSENGER

n 29 October 1923, when pilot Karel Brabenec took off from Prague-Kbely Airport with an Aero A-14 Brandenburg bi-plane toward Bratislava, he probably never dreamt he had helped to begin the long history of the flag carrier of Czechoslovakia and later, also, of the Czech Republic. That day marked the beginning of the seventy-five year history of Czech Airlines. To write a complete company history would produce several substantial volumes but on this important anniversary, there are several notable milestones which should be recounted.

In July 1923, the Czechoslovak Ministry of Public Works decided on the foundation of CSA - Czechoslovak State Airlines and the company was officially founded on 6 October of that same year. A few days later, the above mentioned first transport flight took place. On board, besides the baggage of the pilot and the sole passenger, the editor of Lidové noviny, Václav König, there were 760 grams of mail and 15 kilograms of newspapers.

Another important date in the history of CSA is 1 July 1930 - when the first international flight, to Zagreb, was added to the timetable and when the international registration mark OK appeared on the fuselages of the aircraft for the first time.

As the years passed by, the network of regular air routes diversified and with technological developments, the fleet too, kept changing. The legendary American airplane, the Douglas DC-3 Dakota, with 21 seats for passengers and which could reach a cruising speed of up to 300 km/hour, was the predominant plane in the CSA fleet until 1956. The year 1957 was almost a revolutionary turning point, when CSA became one of the first airlines in the world to enter the jet-age by introducing the Tupolev Tu-104A into regular operation on the Prague-Moscow route. Five years later, CSA carried out the first ever trans-Atlantic flight to Havana.

After 1989, in connection with the change in the political climate, Czechoslovak Airlines underwent a remarkable reformation. The most important development was the far reaching and radical renewal of its fleet. In 1990, the CSA fleet contained only aircraft of Russian production, planes such as the Tupolev, Jakovlev or Ilyushin. But in 1991, the first planes from the Western European consortium of Airbus Industries, the Airbus A310-300, joined the fleet - followed by Boeing and ATR aircraft. The modernisation of the fleet continues to this day.

In May 1995, CSA, although retaining this abbreviation, changed its name for the third time in its history, this time to Czech Airlines - consolidating its position in the world of air transport. Connecting Prague with more than fifty cities in Europe and North America, the Middle East, Asia and North Africa, CSA lives up to the slogan "The Air Is Our Sea" - first declared at Prague-Kbely Airport, seventy-five years ago.