APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110013-9
government agencies and collective farms for the performance of a variety of tasks. Although these aircraft are primarily used for agricultural purposes—spraying, dusting, fertilizing, and seeding—they are also employed in other general aviation services such as aerial advertising, construction, geological survey, aerial photography, surveillance of power line systems, provisioning of remote mountain settlements, and emergency rescue work.
CSA's principal aircraft repair and maintenance installation is at the Prague/Ruzyne airfield, and there are subordinate installations at a few other fields. With the exception of the CLASSIC and possibly the CRUSTY, CSA repairs and maintains its own fleet. It also performs inspection and overhaul on airframes and on all turboprop and piston engines. Routine maintenance on the CLASSIC is performed by Aeroflot personnel under contract to CSA. This may also apply to CSA's newest aircraft, the CRUSTY. Jet engines (CAMEL, COOKPOT, CRUSTY, and CLASSIC) are returned to the Soviet Union for overhaul.
CSA relies heavily on the Soviet Union for spare parts for its major transport aircraft, since all are of Soviet manufacture or design. Extra engines and an adequate supply of spare parts are kept in reserve at Ruzyne. Although there are no indications that CSA has ever encountered any difficulty in obtaining such equipment, its near-complete dependence on the U.S.S.R. in this regard certainly gives the Soviets important economic influence.
It is estimated that CSA has about 4,300 employees, including a maximum strength of about 150 transport pilots. Transport aircrews are recruited from among trained air force reservists and are given transition and on-the-job training in commercial aircraft by the CSA operating staff. As new Soviet transport aircraft are added to the fleet, crews are sent to the U.S.S.R. for familiarization training. Upon completion of their training, they return to Czechoslovakia and give instruction to prospective crews of the new planes. Technical personnel, most of whom are recruited from aero clubs, military workshops, and industry, receive a 3-year program of on-the-job training in the CSA workshops.
About 120 pilots are assigned to Slov-Air on a regular basis. Personnel from CSA's transport flight crews frequently receive specialized training in agricultural aviation and are assigned to Slov-Air.
Training for technical civil aviation positions with CSA is accomplished within that organization. Other aviation training may be obtained at the Civil Air Control School at Tatry, which trains ground aviation technicians, and the Transport School of Higher Learning at Zilina, which offers a 5-year residence course in air transportation studies.
Most basic flight training is provided by the local units of the Aeroclub of the Czechoslovak Republic (ARCS). ARCS is apparently divided into separate Czech and Slovak national organizations. Each national organization has its own flight training school; the Czech school is located at Vrchlabi and the Slovak at Nitra. The aeroclubs have an estimated 1,000 light aircraft, helicopters, and gliders stationed at about 90 airfields in all sections of the country.
Since World War II Czechoslovakia has actively participated in the development and regulation of international civil aviation. It is a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and a contracting party to the major multilateral conventions and agreements regulating the conduct of international aviation. CSA holds membership in the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Czechoslovakia is also signatory to the multilateral arrangement of 8 June 1957 with Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania providing for cooperation among the airlines of those nations. This arrangement is commonly referred to as the Six-Pool Agreement.
Czechoslovakia has entered into formal bilateral air transport agreements with 49 countries, including the parties to the Six-Pool Agreement, the U.S.S.R., Cuba, and Yugoslavia. There apparently is no formal bilateral agreement between Czechoslovakia and Albania, although CSA at one time provided scheduled services to Tirane. No air transport agreements have been made with the Asian Communist countries.
A total of 41 non-Communist countries have entered into bilateral agreements with Czechoslovakia, 18 in Western Europe, 8 in the Middle East and North Africa, 8 in Asia, 5 in West Africa, and 2 in North America. CSA services to Kuwait, Libya, and Iran are apparently conducted under special arrangements with those governments; no formal agreements are known to exist.
Under the terms of these agreements and arrangements, CSA operates its international services and in turn Czechoslovakia is served by 23 foreign carriers. Among these are eight Communist airlines: Aeroflot (U.S.S.R.), Cubana (Cuba), Interflug (East Germany), LOT (Poland), Balkan (Bulgaria), JAT (Yugoslavia), MALEV (Hungary), and TAROM (Romania). Fifteen airlines from non-Communist areas also conduct regularly scheduled services to Prague: KLM—Royal Dutch Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines System, BEA British Airways, Air France, Finnair, SABENA—Belgian World Airlines, Air Algerie, Pan American World Airways, Air Canada, Iraqi Airways, Syrian Arab Airlines, and Egyptair. The
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110013-9
