Thousands stranded as SkyEurope goes under

[Slats7]

Thousands stranded as SkyEurope goes under | Travel News | News.com.au

SLOVAK-based budget airline SkyEurope has thrown in the sponge and cancelled all its flights, mostly from Bratislava, Prague and Paris.


SkyEurope said in a statement that thousands of passengers were stranded at different European airports.



The airline cancelled all afternoon flights from Bratislava yesterday and all flights as today from Prague.

It's sad to see any airline go under

 

[anat0l]

Thousands stranded as SkyEurope goes under | Travel News | News.com.au



It's sad to see any airline go under

"Thrown in the sponge"? What the hell is that? Can't they afford towels in Slovakia?


Looks like it's gone under Ansett-style, i.e. with plenty of ensuing chaos and not much forward notice.

 

[samh004]

Apparently the airline never turned a profit though. Seems strange it lasted this long.

 

[Nigelinoz]

Wall Street Journal says

SkyEurope posted a net loss of EUR18.4 million, following a 2008 net loss of EUR17.2 million.

.
CORRECT: SkyEurope Halts Operations, Starts Bankruptcy Proceedings - WSJ.com

 

[sampson]

Scary thought but Tid Insurance told me no one insures you if the flight is cancelled due to insolvency of a travel agent or the airline.

 

[equus]

Scary thought but Tid Insurance told me no one insures you if the flight is cancelled due to insolvency of a travel agent or the airline.

I doubt very much that is true, even if relevant. Insolvency of a Travel Agent is not going to cause flight cancellation, and registered Australian Travel agents participate in an industry scheme which provides a compensation fund that would cover money paid to a travel agent and not forwarded to the relevant travel provider.

As far as airline insolvency, you would need to check the PDS on each Travel Insurance policy to see what exclusions exist. TID may not offer coverage, but the AMEX Plat Charge card insurance doesn't seem to have any exclusions on the Travel Inconvenience / Cancellation covers relating to insolvency of airlines. It does exclude anything cause by a Travel Agent not passing on money, but see above about coverage for that.

 

[fortymilliondaggers]

Nonsense, there was plenty of warning about these guys going under. They were selling tickets at a loss for months, cancelling or redirecting flights and so on. In Australia, this sort of behaviour would be illegal and there would be personal liabilty against the directors of a company for trading while insolvent. Obviously Slovakian law in this respect was written on the back of a napkin.