Budget Travel - End of SkyEurope?

Blog.flylowcostairlines.org (http://blog.flylowcostairlines.org/2009/06/22/skyeurope-gets-protection-from-creditors/) informed about the possible end of low cost airline SkyEurope: "Slovak low cost airline SkyEurope announced today that it was granted creditors protection by Bratislava I District Court. All the flights and services should continue without any restrictions. SkyEurope said that no scheduled flight would be cancelled"

This is not the total end however I don´t think they can survive for a long time. What do you think? My friend has already bought two tickets for September...:confused:

I hope they do stick around as they do give much better service than Ryanair. They just can't match Ryanairs prices or the network coverage of StarAlliance/OneWorld/Skyteam carriers. If I'm going to pay the kind of prices SkyEurpe charges when not a promo discount I'm going to expect FF miles in my StarAlliance account.

Sky Europe are good and i am still shocked they are still going... they were going bust back in Oct last year...

They are one of the better LCC's. I hope they keep going.

I am about to buy a AMS-VIE ticket with them.
Euro 199 ++ not so great, but for August, ok.

Any reason to look elsewhere?

I just did a check on www.skyscanner.net and both KLM and Austrian airlines came in about the same price as each other. I would not risk it and book a real airline and at 199 euro you are paying to much

Sky Europe have their licence in SLovakia until October,
they announced they found a new investor and it seems the court will give them a new licence until february 2010, so it should be okay to fly with them, at least until end of october (could be like 23.10.2009)

Flew with them last summer.

Skyeurope is a good airline and it would be sad to see them go.

However, I do agree that after hitting financial troubles, their fares have become very high.

actually they didn't make any profit yet (since they started), that is why they are going down wards, but according to my experience they are top low cost airlines in Europe.

Sky Europe has found a new source for cash. One company is giving them a loan, another company is going to invest (if the reorganization is completed successfully plus some other conditions). Sky Europe has now started selling tickets for the winter schedule, so they have received their permissions to fly.

I just red it in a local newspaper, that Sky Europe failed to pay (austrian daily paper reported it's around 4 million euros) to Vienna airport and starting from today Sky Europe will be allowed only for incoming flights and no departures from Vienna airport (VIE). Just to keep you posted that problems with Sky Europe are still coming even when they got new investor. Maybe it will get solve in couple of days, who knows.

Well, Sky Europe did pay pat of their debt to the airport of Vienna (according to a news report 85%). But the airport wanted 100% and stopped providing services. So Sky Europe moved it's operation 59km to the east to the airport of Bratislava. Buses are used to ferry passengers between the two airports. This is the arrangement at least until Wednesday.

The 4 mio Euro figure is definitely wrong.

Well, Sky Europe did pay pat of their debt to the airport of Vienna (according to a news report 85%). But the airport wanted 100% and stopped providing services. So Sky Europe moved it's operation 59km to the east to the airport of Bratislava. Buses are used to ferry passengers between the two airports. This is the arrangement at least until Wednesday.

The 4 mio Euro figure is definitely wrong.


It's not, I was writing what it said in the news paper so stop this non-sense.
I believe that the 4 million was the debt together for Vienna. According to press Sky Europe managed to pay off around 2/3 of it but both parties (Sky Europe and Vienna Airport) are not confirming anything. So stop saying stuff you came up with out of the blue. Sky Europe is in really .... again and If any of you is going to fly from vienna know this is happening and it won't get solved like tomorrow.

according to press, no new deals where discussed with the Vienna Airport, but Sky Europe confirmed that the possibility to stay on Bratislava Airport is very real, they may consider to move 1/3 of the scheduled flights back to Vienna. The dates are still unknown. Will keep you posted.

VIENNA, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Vienna airport will stop servicing flights of ailing Slovak budget airline SkyEurope (SKYV.VI) by midnight Friday after SkyEurope failed to pay outstanding debt, operator Flughafen Wien said on Friday.

"Despite long and intensive talks with SkyEurope, the outstanding and due payments were not made by Friday, 3 p.m.," Flughafen Wien said in a statement. "Flughafen Wien therefore ends all services to SkyEurope by Friday, midnight."

"Skyeurope aircraft whose scheduled departure is later than that will not be handled anymore," it said, adding that it would still handle incoming SkyEurope flights.

Flughafen granted SkyEurope a grace period until Friday to pay outstanding invoices after temporarily grounding its flights on Tuesday already. [ID:LB134582] SkyEurope, which obtained creditor protection in Slovakia in June, said last month it won a new investor who was ready to inject as much as 16.5 million euros ($23.6 million) in fresh equity and also got a 5 million euro bridge loan.

The economic slowdown has hit the airline hard and its financial problems have added to the woes as it lost even more passengers because of concerns it may go insolvent. In July, passenger traffic declined by 37 percent year-on-year.

source Reuters.

I think they won't be able to survive, especially during the economic downturn, only strong company will manage to survive

i just came back from my vacations in lisbon.

i've booked a flight from Athens to Prague and then from Prague to Lisbon with return on Prague.

Arrived at athens airport the flight had 11.10 hours of delay,(showing 03.30 in the next morning, from 16.40 that was the originary departure time) but they didn't advise us before.

This way i was loosing the next flight to lisbon. After verbaly fighting in the check in counters (initialy they respond that for any problem i had to call to the sky europe call center from my cell phone. This one due to the translocation of flights from vienna to bratislava and the calls from all over europe, was always busy and i couldn't take the line-), finelly they called internally and they change me the flight via bratislava (initialy there was no such flight, but due to the traslocation of flights from vienna to bratislava the flight from vienna had a 4 hours delay and that way i could make it to catch that plane in bratislava airport).

The flight from Athens to bratislava, had also a 3 hours delay (i waited 50 minutes inside the plane with no aircondition and no explanation) but finally i made did it to arrive on time to Bratislava, because also that plane was on 2 more hours on retard (initialy 22.30 from Vienna, programmed 01.00 from bratislava and finally departed at 02.45).

The stress that i passed it was very high as if i had lost one of the flights i had lost, also the hotel reservations in lisbon and 2 days of vacation (the next flight from prague to lisbon was 2 days after).

At the airport of athens they denied me to give food or drinks initialy when they changed me the flight to bratislava.

The worse was in bratislava airport when there was (between other people) a mother with a child under 1 year old. Her flight to amsterdam was cancelled and the next was 12 hours after (next morning). The lady at the desk office of Sky Europe denied her a hotel saying that sky europe is one step before bankrupt and can't pay hotals in this occations. She said also that she was also working at that time without beeing payed.

The return from lisbon to prague had also a 2 hours delay. We waited 40 minutes inside the plane for the documents of the flight. Finally a controller arrived checked all the papers of the flight and remained inside the cockpit for the flight (checking for possible problems i suppose).
Finally all the vacation passed with the stress of arriving and the unknown way of returning
as i couldn't know what will happend

My advise :dont use this company even if they give you flights for free. (As i will do this for the future).

There is no future. Sky Europe is dead.

There is no future. Sky Europe is dead.

http://www.skyeurope.com/en/skyeurope-suspends-its-operations

Yep, they turned out the lights.

If you paid via Credit Card file a dispute. Otherwise... your cash is gone too.

mostly for @sokolov and his wise moves on how skyeurope is not in Problems.

Surprise sokolov, skyeurope is finished!


SkyEurope suspends its operations
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Dear Guests

Please be advised that SkyEurope has suspended its sales and operations immediately.

Those of you who have purchased flights with a credit card, please turn to your credit card issuing bank to seek refunds for unused portions of SkyEurope's flights.

In case you have paid directly to SkyEurope in other means than credit card (e.g. bank transfer, cash), please be advised that a refund may not be possible.

If you have ordered your flight tickets via a travel agency or organizer, you should discuss the matter with them first.

If you are already at the destination or have rented a car through SkyEurope's business partner, you may stay at the hotel and use the vehicle during the period originally agreed. You must, however, order a return flight from some other airline at your own expense.

You may also wish to contact your insurance provider to seek further guidance and support.

We regret for the inconvenience that have been caused to you.

I think the only surprise here is that it has taken so long.

I think the only surprise here is that it has taken so long.

Yep.

i flew with them and had no problems at all but we all knew that they were about to go under... that is why i did not book with them again.