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As the world changes because of the globalization, the environment of the aviation changes as well. The airlines are forced to adapt to these changes and choose new strategies to operate successfully. The main objective of this thesis is to, according to the title, describe, identify and explain the processes which significantly affect current image of the world of aviation and focus on four Central European legacy carriers. The issues of globalization and its affect on behavior of economic actors, which airlines are, are discussed as first. The following part is dedicated to the characteristics of aviation and its components, the milieu and the behavior of the airlines as well as the newest strategic trends that are being chosen is described as well. The theoretical part is followed by the empirical one where the particular steps of examined airlines are analyzed and explained. The hypotheses concerning the probable behavior and adopted strategies of four analyzed carriers are expressed according to the discovered theoretical principles of the operations of current legacy (network) carriers. Whether the hypotheses are completely or partially confirmed, is discussed at the end of the empirical chapter. Key words: globalization, air transport, legacy carriers, airline alliances, hub and spoke, codeshare