CSA, Smartwings to require negative COVID-19 test to fly

Smartwings and Czech Airlines (CSA) will require passengers to provide proof of a negative coronavirus test on all their routes starting Friday. They will accept antigen tests up to 24 hours old and PCR tests performed up to 72 hours before the flight. Without it, passengers will not be allowed on the plane, the Smartwings Group announced today. Carriers will also expand testing among their employees.

Until now, airlines have been required to test their cabin crew. He will now extend this obligation to other employees and passengers. At least once a week, they will try their other employees who do not work from home. They will not let these employees into their buildings without confirmation of a negative test.

Mandatory testing will also apply to passengers from Friday. Exceptions will be children under the age of five and passengers with a medical certificate that they do not have clinical signs of covid-19 and have suffered the disease in the last 90 days. Other exceptions can only be governed by the statutes of the Ministry of Health. Also, passengers must meet the conditions for entry to the destination country.

Smartwings and CSA have long applied other hygiene measures in their aircraft. For example, they are equipped with air filters to catch viruses and bacteria. The interior of the plane is then disinfected before and after each flight.

Passengers must wear a respirator during the flight and observe clearances when ascending and embarking.

Smartwings now fly from Prague to Malaga, to the Canary Islands of Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Mallorca, Madeira, or the Egyptian resorts Hurghada and Marsa Alam. Czech Airlines currently flies to Paris, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Kyiv, and Moscow.

Both companies are facing economic problems due to coronavirus. Smartwings is under a protective moratorium against creditors until the end of March. The company is now completing negotiations on loans for two billion crowns. CSA, on the other hand, is preparing to reorganize the company to rescue it. Therefore, they are negotiating with creditors to restructure their receivables, some of which should be reduced. Simultaneously, a possible bankruptcy may also affect CSA clients who bought tickets from the company for a billion crowns and have not yet used them.