We will start flying from Prague to Singapore and Tokyo in a year, the airline promises. He doesn’t have planes yet
The company originally planned to start last June. In January statement for Diary N again, Budinski mentioned this autumn as the moment when the new company should fly out into the world. But now another delay is coming, so Pragusa will not start flying until next year.
In an interview with the E15 daily, the head of Prague Airport, Jiří Pos, confirmed that the company’s representatives are in talks. “They were happy if the project moved from primary considerations to more specific contours, but we are not there yet,” said Pos.
However, even the newly set date for the sharp start in Prague remains extremely uncertain due to a number of unknowns. These include the identity of the investors, who, according to Budinský, were supposed to provide two million dollars, and the identity of the entity from which the company draws a loan of fifty million dollars.
A total of $ 52 million, or over 1.1 billion crowns, represents the budget that the company offers complete. The names of investors have come to prominence in a matter of months. According to the local business register, the company registered in the UK has a registered capital of only one hundred pounds.
But there are more questions. Pragusa, which was created by combining the words Prag (Prague) and the Latin designation of a nuclear resort, above all, has still not obtained an air operator’s certificate, more precisely an AOC certificate. “We expect to receive it in the fourth quarter,” Budinski said.
In addition, his company still does not have aircraft. “We are negotiating with a leasing company, we will sign the contract in about three months,” says the entrepreneur without further details. It intends to make up the fleet moderately from the currently best-equipped long-haul aircraft, from four Airbus A350-900 aircraft.
“These are the most modern and also very expensive machines that could be set up, it would mean the need to support a solvent investor or group of investors. Availability can also be a problem, as there is a huge demand for these machines, and the new carrier would have to have an agreement with some of the leasing companies that ordered the machines. Otherwise, deadlines in the order of years may be provided, ”suggest Jakub Habarta, an aviation expert from the consulting company Deloitte.
Pragusa will offer a single travel class, premium economy, which is among the cheapest economy and more expensive business classes, offering more legroom, for example. server Zdopravy.cz however, he has not yet pointed out that no airline has penetrated long-haul air only with a premium class on board with premium Singapore-New York flights and formerly London-New York flights. It will be very difficult to succeed in a time of pandemic aviation decline, so demand is gradually renewed. The planes operated by Pragusa are to fly to the destinations once a week every year.
The company on its own web states, for example, the Singapore-Prague-Singapore sightseeing flight for $ 990, over 21,000 crowns, or New York-Dubrovnik-New York for $ 790, about 17,000 crowns. “Demand can be relatively strong, but whether it will be a profitable price for the airline is a question, considering that there should be only 251 seats on the plane. The aircraft can almost always be filled at a low price, but it is difficult to keep the line profitable at low demand, ”adds Habarta.
“We do not intend to compete with major airlines such as Qatar Airways, Emirates or Lufthansa, we are targeting premium passengers,” says Budinski. In the Czech Republic, the company is said to start recruiting staff at the end of the summer, including pilots, which should be up to 250 people. In the first year, 2023, the airlines intend to carry 200,000 passengers. He also wants to rely on an agreement with three to five travel agencies in each of these destinations.