Czech Airlines (CSA) is about to lay off all its 430 employees, they announced to the Labor Office. This was written today by Hospodářské noviny (HN), in which Tereza Löffelmanová, Chairwoman of the Aircraft Crews Trade Union, confirmed the announcement of the mass redundancies. The airline has been hit by the effects of the coronavirus epidemic, but state aid cannot be counted on. The airlines are under a protective moratorium against creditors, which expires at the end of February.
“I can confirm that we have received a notice of mass redundancies,” Löffelman told the daily. According to her, employees do not yet know the plan for how the company wants to survive the coming weeks.
According to the SeznamZprávy server, the Smartwings aviation group, of which Czech Airlines is a part, asked the state for help of CZK 1.1 billion for CSA at the beginning of February. According to Smartwings, CSA is facing insolvency proceedings without state assistance, because the company is not entitled to assistance from the Covid Plus program. Smartwings has previously called on the government to create a compensation program for aviation, from which Smartwings and CSA would probably draw as the only ones. According to the group’s co-owner Jiří Šimáně, the compensation was to cover the canceled flights during the state of emergency last spring, the group estimated the compensation at about half a billion crowns.
But the state is not going to help. “We are not preparing any specific support for the Smartwings group,” Minister of Transport and Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček (for YES) told HN. The Ministry of Transport has previously announced that the Covid Plus program, which allows companies to draw on guarantees from transport and tourism, can be used by Smartwings as the majority owner of CSA.
Last summer, CSA announced that it planned to reduce the number of employees by more than 300 by February this year. At that time, the company had about 700 people. Employees were also laid off by its sister company Smartwings.
According to Šimáně, CSA recorded a loss of about CZK 1.5 billion last year. In addition, they do not have a leasing company that would support them, as happened in the case of Smartwings, said Šimána. A possible bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings may also affect CSA clients who bought tickets from the company for a billion crowns and have not yet used them.
Sources: CTK, SeznamZprávy, HN and CSA
