Airliners.net

Antwerp airport announced a new route to Prague commencing June 3th. Flights operated by Czech airline Discovery Aviation. Tickets only available on package deals.

Has anyone more information on this? The airline? Partaking travel agencies?
Thanks!

I only know, they should be flying one or two BAe 146. They've postponed already several times their commencement of operations and their webpage is not really useful either. I'll wait till I actually SEE   them flying.

Do you happen to know their web address? (http://www.discoveryaviation.com/ leads you to a Colorado GA commercial site)

Tnx again
Swake

Discovery aviation started operations last february and operated several flights from Prague to Sion, Switzerland. After two months of operations, they stopped flying without informations. Now I heard that they will reopen this route in july and add more destinations : Geneva, Antwerp and maybe some others.
This airline seems very strange to me but I know some people who flew the Sion-Prague route and were very happy. The inbound flight was operated by Farnair Switzerland and the outbound flight was operated by Flightline.

They have a special "first day of operations" domestic route promotion: Zlin - Prague for 3 Euros so I will check 'em out and let you know what they are like.

L410Turbolet

where can you make the reservation for their tickets? I went to they website but without any luck I was able to book any tickets.

Thanks
Ales

A hint how to access their online reservation system:

On their webpage: http://www.discovery-link.com click on the "continue" button in lower right-hand corner, no need to login. Their reservation system is pretty straight-forward, with seating selection available, the prices seem to be on the expensive side though.

This clears it all up. Thanks for all your replies. Turbolet, prices are steep indeed, a hefty +8000Kc (+250€) for any given weekend booking through the summer!! As they target tourists they will face fierce competition from Swartwings out of AMS, SN & OK from BRU and even Germanwings out of CGN for the eastern parts of Belgium.

regards
Swake

Swake,
I was thinking about visiting a friend in Brussels late June/early July, and get some Bellevue Kriek    . Anyway, both CSA and SN Brussles are either way cheaper if booked with 30-day advance or some 15 Euro cheaper + they fly you full-service and to BRU directly. Thanx to the online seating option one can see, that they have no customers at all - no wonder if they are presenting 3990,- ow to Antwerps as "special offer", have very user-unfriendly website and in general seem to not really care. I mean it's 2004 so even babies in kindergarten know that website and promotions is THE WAY for LCC to attract customers.

View Large View Medium

Photo © Sven De Bevere

Today I noticed that the flight schedules of these new PRG flights are being displayed already on some TV monitors in the departure hall of Antwerp Airport. I assume that this information is provided and confirmed by the Antwerp airport authorities.

Established02

Swake, Established02,
guys as , what is the most cost-effective and if possible not too much time-consuming way to get from Brussels to AMS or CDG?
Thanx.

Petr

> what is the most cost-effective and if possible not too much
> time-consuming way to get from Brussels to AMS or CDG?

Train (quicker):

The high speed train connects Brussels Gare du Midi Station with:
Amsterdam Central Station, AMS, Paris Gare du Nord(?), CDG and also Antwerp Central Station.

http://www.b-rail.be/

Bus (cheaper):

http://www.eurolines.be

Established02

Nazdar Petr

seems like they won't be around for too long this way. Pity...
Let's hope Smartwings grows rapidly and expands its network over more European cities. They seem to attract lots of customers with interesting 100€ return fares if you book early.

Established filled you in regarding transport to Amsterdam and Paris. Eurolines would be cheaper indeed but if I presume correctly that you want to go from AMS or CDG airport to Brussels then nothing beats the high speed trains. Affordable, fast and departing at 200 yards max. from the terminal.

Enjoy the BellevueKriek but give me a Plzenske dvanast anytime  

Swake

Swake, Established02
thanks for your help! If I manage to buy tickets early enough I'll fly CSA/SN for 150 Euros incl. taxes straight to BRU, but I'm leaving AMS/CDG as a "plan B"

BTW, I've flown with Discovery yesterday. It was a 35 min domestic flight UHE-PRG for 99 CZK (3 Euros). I've taken some photos, but the weather was really bad so their not the quality to be published on a.net.
Their BAe146 seems to be an aircraft-"prostitute". Looking up its registration D-AWUE I found out on a.net that its an ex-Deutsche BA/Austrian Arrows/WDL Aviation/Air Berlin aircraft. Flight itself was ok, but runway at UHE is horrible - I really thought the plane is gonna fall apart.

Anyway I might fly them tomorrow again, just for the fun of flying dirt cheap before they go bust. Taking a bus from Brno to UHE and then from PRG to my hometown is quite a detour though, but only 5 Euros more expensive than taking a bus straight home.
There were some managers from Discovery aboard the flight and I heard them talking about getting a 2nd and 3rd plane at the end of June, July respectively, expanding its network to Naples, Geneva, Sion. I have no idea how they want to survive with such a financial burden of having to finance three a/c while having such unbusinesslike attitude at the same time? I'd love to see them flourish, but have serious doubts about it.
Even SmartWings will have hard time struggling against large LCCs and they are pros with years and years of experience from charter operations as well as backing of a prosperous charter airline (Travel Servis).