Czech Airlines Orders A321XLR & A220-300

A321 will be used for JED, RUH and Russian destinations. There’s no other strategy, these plans are all made under Smart Wings group. Czech Airlines technically doesn’t exist anymore.

I would expect JFK, YYZ, and ORD. Maybe PEK, DXB. The DL JFK-PRG flight is only seasonal.

I think that it's a great way to employ the same amount of money and technically get more. They probably just see the XLR and the neo as the same aircraft pretty much, and that they get better range with the XLR. On the other side of the airbus family there's the 220, which would work better with some of their intraeuropean routes. So whatever premium they'd pay on "upgrading" to 3 XLRs would be mitigated by "downgrading" 4 neo to 220s.
I don't think they plan on launching another longhaul route anytime soon. However, those XLRs might come handy in the future; this way the airline is ready for a transatlantic route right away when they decide to do so.

I would assume North America is a logical option and possibly India as business market. However, the seat count of 195 raises some questions indeed, because they will need a good business product on those premium routes. Otherwise I could only think of leisure routes to places like Seychelles or Sri Lanka...?

Where will the crew rest area be on the A321XLR/A321LRs?

Guys, there will definitely not be any flights to India. OK/QS talked about NA bit it will likely happen as US airlines are prioritized and welcomed in PRG even for seasonal.

@PW

As Czech is part of Skyteam, would those be the best airport choices for them in the US?

I guess they'll launch routes to New York and Beijing.

Based in Eastern Germany, PRG is currently a really good option for me going east. I bet adding directs services to the US would not only be appreciated by myself.

@Aaron. DL doesn't offer even a seasonal ATL-PRG. It's seasonal JFK-PRG only. DTW, ATL, maybe BOS/MSP could work, but I just don't see them generating enough traffic.

Maybe if there's a JV someday ATL or DTW would be added, but I don't see that happening for a long time, especially when they will have only 6 planes.

AA’s A321neo has 196 seats and there’s already a seat map released, so I’m assuming OK’s will be similar.

@ Leo Guam -- Yeah that's an A321neo for domestic operations, though. Presumably Czech wants to fly these planes long haul.

PRG-BOS, BOS is a growing Delta hub and could feed lots of traffic from Southeast/Midwest.

I can promise you they certainly won't be launching any new longhauls, especially not to the US or India. Since CSA is owned by LCC Smartwings (most of OK flights are not even operated by their own metal) you can't expect any exciting development. The XLR's are just for their Russia flights (that's why the C cabin) and the hard product won't be nothing to write home about. Certainly not staggered configuration like Aer Lingus or TAP.

Air Transat operates their A321LR in a 12/187 configuration, though their Club Class resembles US domestic first class more than the average lie-flat product. Starlux has their A321neo in a 8/180 config with lie-flat Diamond seats. With tightened seat pitch, something like a 8/187 or even a 10/185 configuration (with either Diamond or Vantage seats) doesn't seem too unreasonable.

Aer Lingus's A321LR seatmap actually displays 184 seats in total, J16 Y168. Replacing last two rows of J with three Y will get to 184 + 18 - 6 = 196. They have been premium-light in their 333 and 319 configs.

When looking at Czech Airlines, you have to consider that the airline has now completely blended with Smartwings, its long-time nemesis that took control of them a couple of years ago.
Right now, most OK flights are actually operated by QS crews on QS metal (737s), which is an unpleasant surprise for many a traveler. Granted, OK never was a particularly premium airline, but it's basically become part of an LCC lately.

We know for a fact that they'll be phasing out their turboprops in the next year or so, hence the A220 replacement. All but one of the A319s are also on the way out, so the fleet will consist primarily of Smartwings 737s, along with one A319, one leased A330, four A220s and the odd A321XLRs, whose purpose is anybody's guess at this point. Quite a diverse fleet for a relatively small carrier.

Interesting Wikipedia entry for Smartwings says they were going to transition OK to an all Boeing fleet...

“In March 2019, Smartwings announced plans to create a German subsidiary by late 2019, and to transition its Czech Airlines subsidiary to an all Boeing 737 fleet.“