Israir airline intends to take over Czech Smartwings for EUR 44 million.
This emerges from a mandatory publication published on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Smartwings does not want to comment on this at the moment.
Currently, the Czech carrier is majority-owned by Jiří Šimáň and Roman Vik. A company from China is also involved as a minority shareholder.
The former subsidiary CSA has already been separated from the group and is now a sister company.
It is currently still unclear whether Israir will take the offer. If it can be assumed that a construction must be created that formally guarantees EU majority ownership.
Smartwings does not want to comment on the possible takeover by the carrier from Israel.
Smartwings also owns Czech Airlines (CSA), the legacy carrier that is the flag carrier of the Czech Republic. Czech Airlines is not in a very good position at the moment: it is in administration and is being reorganized.
The reorganization is going well so far because the administrator is selling off Czech Airlines’ emissions allowances to generate
revenue to gradually cover its debts.
Smartwings has subsidiaries in Eastern Europe
The Smartwings Group also runs flight operations under the Smartwings brand in several countries outside of the Czech Republic.
It has a subsidiary in Hungary, called Smartwings Hungary, which is based at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD) and has one aircraft in its fleet. The aircraft is a parked Boeing 737-800 that is almost 20 years old.
There are also subsidiaries in Slovakia (Smartwings Slovakia with one Boeing 737-800) and in Poland (Smartwings Poland with one Boeing 737-800).
