SkyGreece
 

I noticed a beautiful B767 parked in Athens the last few times that I passed through there. Doing some research, it turns out to belong to SkyGreece, a new airline planning to operate flights between ATH and various US cities (JFK, ORD, YYZ).

http://upload.xandrios.net/1398644_5...89406455_o.jpg

Does anybody have any information about their plans and schedules? It would make sense that they would cooperate with A3, in order to provide domestic flights to the islands. In which case we might also see an A3 codeshare, and gain a number of nonstop US destinations. Which would be great since there are few to no nonstop US flights at this moment.

So far their (only?) plane is sitting at ATH, and their website provides no info. Would be sad to see this die even before it starts - because it needs to start soon in order to pick up some 2014 holiday traffic..

Anybody knows more about them?

YYZ is not in the US. Is Canada a popular destination for Greeks?

The americas. Canada is indeed a (very) popular destination. It has a huge number of Greeks that immigrated there.

The company's founders are all Greek-Canadian. Given A3's *A membership, my feeling is that we'll not see any kind of close collaboration between the two airlines anytime soon. Of course, this is not based on real info, just a gut feeling. If you read in the Internet the different articles on the airline, most of which in Greek, you'll find several unconfirmed pieces of information, such as their plans to start flying last May. That is already a substantial delay, but no reasons can be found. Given the number of Greek airlines that went out of business over the last few years (not counting the three "eaten" by A3), I am not particularly optimistic.

They have been promoting on FB for a while now. I saw one of their B767s at IST back in Dec.

So far they seem to have got their heads screwed on so time will tell. There was talk at the start about A3 links but then it all went quiet.

Whatever they do they need to make sure they offer a decent service which will make the Greek Diaspora and tourists alike ditch the usuals and hubs to travel to Athens and vv. Doing that and making a profit will be tough but I wish them luck anyway as it would be nice to see a stable Greek airline with key USA/Canada routes.

From what I have seen they only have one single aircraft, currently parked at ATH. However it is in fact ready to fly as they are doing testflights every now and then. That sounds like a waste of money, not executing any flights (Keeping an aircraft and its pilots air-worthy is very expensive).

I think working with A3 for connecting island flights is crucial for them. Few Greeks living abroad actually have their family living in Athens - most will be outside of the city. That last hop to a regional airport will be very important.

Also tourists visiting Greece will most likely not (only) want to visit Athens. Especially Santorini and Crete are very popular with American tourists. Making them arrange transport to these locations from Athens themselves would be a big let down.

Yes they did a run down to RHO the other day.

SkyGreece Airlines have now received the permits to fly to Canada. According to
http://www.routesonline.com/news/29/...ks-to-toronto/
they will offer flights from Athens, Thessaloniki, Budapest and Zagreb to Toronto. There will also be a seasonal service from Athens to Montreal. Athens-Toronto will be all year round.

There are also plans to connect Athens with New York. Did A3 miss an opportunity there?

Are you aware of any indications of SkyGreence price levels?

I really hope they can establish themselves. I've seen so many airlines try and fail...

Single plane: a recipe for accumulating delays and cancellations! :(

A3 has been expanding within Europe (with a few flights into the Middle East). I guess they must have considered TATL flights and the decided against them for the time being.

Nope

As I wrote in this thread about one year ago, I've seen lots of Greek airlines folding over the lest two decades.

I believe a second aircraft is on the way they certainly have come further than I thought they would so now we just wait and see how long it lasts but KUDOS to them for coming this far ^

SkyGreece is supposedly starting JFK-ATH on 19 June. However not available for sale on their site(although flights from Canada are)......and no indication about the additional equipment in the fleet.

Earlier, they did fly some charters to Africa(Somalia and Eritrea) on flights originating in London and Stockholm via ATH. This was on behalf of a travel agency.

And a brief period, they flew contract flights on behalf of Royal Air Maroc.

nightmare
 

Would highly recommend avoiding SkyGreece.

Delays and cancellations. Leaving you stranded without a flight home.
They offer you a full refund on flights that they cancel, then ignore you and avoid all communication with you when you request for the refund.

Then, expect to pay another airline to get you home.

Negative feedback and questions on Facebook are regularily deleted by SkyGreece.
They cannot seem to delete the negative Reviews however. (Possibly a Facebook restriction?) Check the reviews there to see many travellers stranded without any refund and experiencing terrible customer service.
Save yourself from a ruined, very expensive vacation.