Requiem for SkyEurope

Today, SkyEurope, unable to pay its bills and saddled with significant debt, suspended all operations. How sad to see another airline bite the dust. Passengers are unlikely to receive compensation I would guess, given the depth of SkyEurope's financial difficulties. But the writing has been on the wall for most of 2009 and, despite attempts to restructure, the inevitable has happened. It is typical of our industry to see an airline cling onto the edge of the cliff in the vain hope that, by some magic, things will suddenly change.

SkyEurope suffered the ignominy of seeing large chunks of their fleet repossessed by the lessor, and were forced to seek bankruptcy protection earlier this year. Things went from bad to worse as the market ebbed away and the debts mounted. In fact, they never made a profit in their seven-year history. SkyEurope will nevertheless be remembered for some rather racy aircraft liveries and for being the first airline to announce that it would actually pay passengers to fly with them. Yes, a couple of years ago they actually offered 'negative fares' of about minus 44 cents; plus all the taxes of course! This tactic may have grabbed the headlines, but it did smack of desperation.