December 27, 2023.   Czech Centennial.

I’m a couple of months late with this, but congratulations to CSA, the flag carrier of the Czech Republic, for celebrating its 100th birthday in October.

Albeit barely. Once a mainstay carrier of Central Europe, with a network reaching the United States, CSA is down to only two airplanes and a handful of destinations. The company survived a 2021 bankruptcy filing, but its future is at best uncertain. Maybe that hideous livery has something to do with it.

Nonetheless, they’ve survived a hundred years, joining KLM, Avianca, Aeroflot and Qantas as the only carriers to hit the century mark. Let’s hope they keep going.

In the days before that atrocious paintjob you see above, the words “OK Jet” emblazoned the tails of CSA’s planes. “OK” is the airline’s two-letter IATA code, and also the aircraft registration prefix of the Czech Republic and former Czechoslovakia. Incorporating this into a tail emblem was equal parts peculiar and charming. The Cold War was maybe more fun than we remember.

Top photo courtesy of Ondrej Bocek and Unsplash.
Lower photo from the author’s postcard collection.