Praha - Starting next year passengers of the biggest travel agent Čedok may not be boarding the Travel Service planes any longer but Seagle Air instead, as Aktuálně.cz learnt.
The Slovak charter company Seagle Air is negotiating possible cooperation for the next season with major Czech tour-operators.
"We are holding talks with travel agents from the Czech Republic," Seagle Air´s head Petr Hanák confirmed to Aktuálně.cz.
"Some of them do belong among the seven biggest in terms of numbers of clients," he added.
The negotiations are not easy, though, says Hanák, as there is huge competition in the Czech Republic with companies like Travel Service and Czech Airlines (ČSA).
Čedok is not only the biggest but also the oldest. It dates back to 1920 and at the moment the travel agent is owned by US company Odien.
Čedok mulling change
"We can confirm that we have been negotiating about passenger transport with Slovak air company Seagle Air. But we are also debating with a number of other transporters," Čedok marketing director Tomáš Brejcha said to Aktuálně.cz.
If Čedok is to reach an agreement with the Slovak company, Seagle Air will not probably be Čedok´s sole transporter, as Seagle Air does not have sufficient capacity.
Among the Czech companies that are interested in Seagle Air´s transport services is also Czech travel agent FIRO-tour.
Seagle Air cooperates with 14 Czech travel agents.
Flying to Prague with Seagles
The Slovak company has launched flights from Prague only this year.
"From May to July 27,000 passengers were served at Prague Airport. Seagle Air planes made 317 flights," said Prague Airport spokesperson Eva Krejčí.
Seagle Air was founded in 1995, having three planes Boeing 737-300 with the capacity of 145 to 148 passengers. The company is planning to add two more planes this year.
New owner, new company?
Čedok has been using the Travel Service. Last year there was a property connection between Čedok and Travel Service but at the end of the year businessmen Jiří Šimáně sold his Čedok share to the Turkey-US company Odien, which thus acquired 98 percent of Čedok.
Since last fall Travel Service has had a new owner as well. Icelandair bought half of the company then and this spring it raised its stock ownership up to 80 percent.
