SKYEUROPE FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY

Thousands of passengers of Slovak airline FlyEurope were stranded Tuesday, company spokesman Ronald Schranz said, after the budget carrier stopped its flights and filed for bankruptcy on the previous day. Citing “lack of sufficient interim funding to finance ongoing operations,” SkyEurope announced late Monday that it had stopped its flight services.
The decision to end operations was made by the court-appointed trustee of the company, which was granted creditor protection in Slovakia in June.
The small airline used to make up to 10 flights each day to European holiday destinations from its hub in Bratislava and from Prague and Vienna.
Some 300 travellers seeking to fly home were stranded on the Croatian Adriatic coast, local media reported.
Austrian Airlines, Czech Airlines and Austrian budget carrier Niki offered to transport SkyEurope passengers. Thousands called Czech Airlines’ hotline, the company said. Having suffered from liquidity problems for years, SkyEurope came under increasing pressure this year.
With around 700 employees, SkyEurope had a net loss of 15.1 million euros (21.6 million dollars) in the last business quarter ending in June.
Trading of its shares was suspended on the Vienna stock exchange on Tuesday. Problems mounted this summer when airplanes were grounded by airports in Paris, Sofia and Bucharest over unpaid fees. In mid-August, Vienna’s airport stopped handling the carrier’s flights for the same reason, and on Monday, Prague airport threatened to follow suit.