Privatisation comes to Czech Republic
The Czech government has appointed Deloitte Advisory to analyse possible privatisation scenarios for CSA Czech Airlines and has selected Credit Suisse to advise it on the planned privatisation of CSA's hub airport, Prague Ruzyne. The sale of Ruzyne operator Airport Prague is expected in 2008. A timeline has not been set for the long-mooted privatisation of CSA but it is expected after the SkyTeam carrier's ongoing restructuring is completed. CSA expects to post for 2007 its first profit in three years and is again planning to expand its network, with the launch of new services in 2008 to Almaty, Bordeaux, Damascus, Heraklion, Rostov-on-Don and Tbilisi.
Wizz expands
Central European budget carrier Wizz has selected Cluj-Napoca in Romania as its eighth base. It will serve eight destinations at Cluj-Napoca from May including new routes to Barcelona and Valencia in Spain Bergamo in Italy Izmir in Turkey and Varna in Bulgaria. Wizz will also serve all five of these destinations from its Sofia base starting next summer.
Private Jets for lufthansa
Lufthansa plans to expands its business jet feeder service in 2008 by acquiring its own fleet of private jets. The Lufthansa Private Jet service has been operated since 2005 by NetJets but the carrier says a dedicated business jet fleet is now needed to meet demand. Austrian Airlines launched a similar service in 2007 but acknowledges it only attracted a "minor" number of passengers in its first six months of operation.
Source: Airline Business
