Exclusive: A new all-A350 airline is coming, and its name is PRAGUSA.ONE. The ambitious carrier plans to base its operations out of Prague and Dubrovnik, and will fly around the world with Airbus A350-900s. Most excitingly, the airline plans to outfit its widebodies with an all-premium economy arrangement, offering a new take on affordable long-haul comfort.

PRAGUSA.ONE wants to fill a market gap for premium travel to CE Europe

PRAGUSA.ONE, a British investment vehicle, wants to establish an airline of the same name using an Air Operator Certificate it will apply for next month in Croatia. With its Croatian AOC, as an EU member state airline, PRAGUSA.ONE would then one base in Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG) in the Czech Republic and base in Dubrovnik Airport (DBV) in Croatia.

Both airports have already agreed to provide incentives for PRAGUSA.ONE. Each base would have two aircraft. The company name itself is a combination of the words Prague and Ragusa (the historical name for Dubrovnik).

Out of its planned bases in Prague and Dubrovnik, PRAGUSA.ONE plans to operate flights to the United States, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Africa. The company has established contact with a network of airports in these destinations: New York (EWR), Tokyo (NRT), Beijing (PEK), Los Angeles (LAX), Singapore (SIN), Johannesburg (JNB), Chengdu (CTU), and Kuala Lumpur (KUL).  

PRAGUSA.ONE plans to operate a global route network out of Prague and Dubrovnik. Photo: PRAGUSA.ONE

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PRAGUSA.ONE has a four-year timeline

The company is already in talks with Airbus to place an order for four A350-900 aircraft in a single-class configuration, each fitted with 251 premium economy seats. The deliveries of these A350s would take place in 2024. The four aircraft will be split evenly across PRAGUSA.ONE's bases, so Dubrovnik and Prague would each receive two of these A359s.

However, PRAGUSA.ONE does not plan to wait until the A350s are delivered to start operations. It wants to start flying as soon as June 2021, and it plans to use wet leased aircraft from an established European aircraft provider to do so. The company is negotiating to wet lease two Airbus A350-900 and two A330-330 aircraft.

The planned start date for operations, June 2021, is deliberately targeting a gap in the market that has emerged as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In PRAGUSA.ONE’s two target airports, Prague and Dubrovnik, there has been a considerable loss of seat capacity to far-away markets.

American Airlines will not be operating its daily Philadelphia-Dubrovnik flights this summer, and Qatar Airways has canceled the launch of its Doha-Dubrovnik route. In Prague, direct flights to both Shanghai and Beijing have been canceled with both Hainan Airlines and China Eastern Airlines pulling out of the Czech Republic.

American Airlines
LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 13: American Airlines Boeing 787-9 takes off from Los Angeles international Airport on January 13, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

What products will be on offer?

Customers wishing to travel on PRAGUSA.ONE’s services will have several choices on offer. For example:

  • 7-day return trips with organized tours to a single destination, e.g. LAX – PRG – LAX
  • 14-day return trips to both Central and Eastern European destinations, e.g. EWR – DBV followed by PRG – EWR
  • One-way tickets, e.g. DBV – LAX
  • Return trips of any duration, e.g. PEK – DBV – PEK

What do you make of PRAGUSA.ONE’s plans for Dubrovnik and Prague? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.