In view of the Corona crisis, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic pulled a plan out of the drawer that was shelved 16 years ago. The governments are pushing the establishment of a "strong Central European airline". The driving force behind the project is the government of the Czech Republic.

People in Prague are extremely unhappy that there are no longer any CSA long-haul flights. In general, the climate between the owner of Smartwings and the government is not as friendly as the carrier's newspaper advertisements recently showed. With the planned LOT base in Prague, however, one would be very happy and this could also become the test carrier for the new project. The Polish state carrier also has a base in Budapest. Slovakia has long been dreaming of its own carrier and Hungary has not really realized the Malev bankruptcy to this day.

Lidovky.cz reports that the Czech Transport Minister Karel Havlíček and Prime Minister Andrej Babiš have already given the go-ahead. These should be politically behind the project. Prague is to be expanded into a hub with the help of LOT and a long wish is to come true. They also want to counter the expansion of Ryanair, which is omnipresent in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The participation of the states shows great security.

At the projected company, at least half of the current information according to LOT should be kept. The remaining shares would be divided between the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. However, it is unclear what role Smartwings and its subsidiary CSA could play, because not everything has been finalized with regard to possible government support. The carrier put pressure on newspaper advertisements only a few weeks ago. The government has repeatedly signaled that there is actually no will for state aid due to the corona crisis, but a guarantee for bank loans was then announced. Smartwings also has to cut numerous employees.

Václav Řehoř, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prague Airport, spoke very favorably of the project to various media. In any case, he would welcome the involvement of the CSA in the project, as this would also ensure domestic connections. In general, the manager is of the opinion that the carrier's fire in the east is still strong.

So far, however, there have only been talks and the political will has been signaled. There are no contracts yet and budgets have not yet been set. According to reports, there is no time pressure, because this is not necessary anyway, especially due to the corona crisis. In the course of the talks and negotiations it will then become clear whether the Visegrad states will succeed in getting a joint airline into the air in the second attempt. Incidentally, they also have a plan B: If the negotiations with the possible partner states fail, the Czech Republic could go it alone with LOT and expand the Prague base. In any case, the head of the airport there confirms that there are intensive negotiations on a long-haul base. These conversations have been going on for a long time, Řehoř said.