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Ryanair And EasyJet Already Greedily Eyeing SkyEurope's Old Routes
Even in the short run, SkyEurope's sudden bankruptcy and full-scale flight cancelation will impact more than the passengers whom the airline left stranded all over Europe. The now-defunct airline was routinely ranked as Eastern Europe's #1 low-cost carrier, somewhat because of its services but also because it crowded a lot of its competition out of the region. Now Ryanair and EasyJet, Europe's top two LCC's, are looking to swoop into the airports and routes that SkyEurope used to dominate.
Ryanair and EasyJet have long had sparse-to-no presence in Central Europe. Aside from the occasional WizzAir route, SkyEurope had a firm grip on Slovakia, Vienna, and Prague, taking up gates and undercutting other airlines' prices. Not any more:
Tags: Airline Hell / Airline Bankruptcy / SkyEurope / LCCs / Airline News / → All Tags
SkyEurope LCC Folds, Strands Thousands of Passengers Around Europe
There will be no more SkyEurope in the sky...um, over Europe, as the low-cost airline based out of Slovakia ceased operations this morning thanks to bankruptcy. As a result, its five planes (down from 15 in the past) had their flights cancelled, stranding passengers at airports like Bratislava, Prague, and Paris-Orly.
Not only has the deep-sixed airline left their customers in the lurch, but they've also pulled a jerk move in refusing to refund any of the tickets. Instead, they posted a statement to their website encouraging would-be SkyEurope passengers to dispute the ticket charge with their credit cards and then book a flight home on another airline, at additional expense. Them's fighting words!
Tags: SkyEurope / Low Cost Carriers / LCCs / Airfare Deals / → All Tags
Happy Hours Not Just for Drinks at SkyEurope
Those cheerful Slovaks who run the budget airline SkyEurope have got so cheerful they've started a Happy Hour.
But while we expect some cheap cocktails or bigger beers during our happy hour, the SkyEurope gang are instead offering extra cheap flights. The Happy Hour coincides with the European lunch break so anyone who goes online to book a flight between noon and 1 pm Central European Time (6 am-7 am EDT) is apparently able to get some super-cheap flights.
They have different Happy Hour options each day so you have to keep checking back to see if what you want is available. Sure, we might get a cheap flight or two, but it's also a clever way to keep us clicking on their site--and we reckon it wouldn't be too long until we gave in and just booked a flight at the regular price. Which is exactly what they want.
Related Stories:
· SkyEurope Happy Hour [Official Site]
· SkyEurope Has Routes, Deals and Denim [Jaunted]
[Photo: Pascalg_1991]
Tags: SkyEurope / Low Cost Carriers / LCCs / Credit Cards / → All Tags
SkyEurope Caters to Nervous Online Customers
European low cost carrier SkyEurope has just started a new payment system for customers who get freaked out about putting their credit card details onto the internet. In the modern spirit of joining a bunch of words together with no capitals or hyphens, it's the paysafecard, a pre-paid PIN-protected card that you can use online instead of putting your real credit card info at risk.
SkyEurope is the first airline to hop on the paysafecard bandwagon and they're pretty proud about it, calling it "revolutionary." Whether or not they'll really pick up extra customers this way is something we question, but the idea is certainly not a bad one.
The catch is you have to buy it in pre-paid amounts (of €10, €25, €50 or €100), so you're going to keep ending up with leftover money. Maybe they need to revolutionize the idea just a bit more.
Related Stories:
· SkyEurope Accepts Payments Via paysafecard [Peanuts]
· SkyEurope Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Dr. Jaus]
Tags: LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / Europe Travel / SkyEurope / Ryanair / Summer Travel / → All Tags
LCC Travel: More New Routes in Europe
Hot on the heels of our prediction that the European budget airline industry is in trouble, we're instantly proven wrong with a bunch of new route announcements from SkyEurope and Ryanair.
In the next couple of months, SkyEurope will start new flights including Kosice (eastern Slovakia) to England, Poprad (northern Slovakia) to London and more regular flights between Slovak cities and Prague.
Ryanair meanwhile is launching 14 new routes, including service to four completely new destinations: Agadir, Nador and Tangier in Morocco and Lille in northern France.
We'll have to wait till the end of the summer to see if these new routes actually pay their way. Get in while they're still available!
Related Stories:
· June Sees Some New Routes for SkyEurope [European Weekly]
· New Ryanair Routes Announced [asap]
· European LCCs Might Be in Trouble [Jaunted]
[Photo of Tangier: mezzoblue]
Tags: Low Cost Carriers / LCCs / Europe Travel / Iceland Express / SkyEurope / → All Tags
Iceland on the Cheap and SkyEurope Celebrates
If you've been daydreaming about a spontaneous (and cheap) trans-European trip then maybe we'll spark an idea with some of the latest deals from our favorite European low cost carriers. Take Iceland Express, for example. There are a hundred reasons to visit Iceland, half of which you can find out our favorite airline blog, How Do You Like Iceland?, and the 101st reason is they have a Christmas special on London to Iceland flights, starting at £60 ($122). Reason 102: They say New Year's Eve really goes off in Iceland.
For other European destinations, SkyEurope is offering a neat deal right now, to celebrate its best quarter of financial results ever. Book before December 16 (or sooner, as there are a limited number of tickets) and SkyEurope will charge you nothing but the taxes and charges, for travel between January 10 and March 18, 2008. Since the maximum taxes and charges add up to about $70, and some are far less, you could be flying between Western and Central Europe very cheaply indeed.
Related Stories:
· Iceland Express Impresses [Jaunted]
· Low Cost Carrier Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: pterjan]
Tags: SkyEurope / Airlines / LCCs / Romantic Travel / Low Cost Carriers / → All Tags
In-Flight Dating: Would You Try It?
Those cozy quarters... the scarcity of armrests... the potential to get (six inches closer to) horizontal... What isn't romantic about airlines? The new Central European carrier SkyEurope must be banking on that as it builds up its SkyDate program on flights within Europe.
On the first SkyDate in June, passengers traveling between Brussels and Vienna were given the opportunity to meet 10 singles over the course of the flight. But those traveling on the upcoming London-Prague SkyDate (November 28 and 29) will have the opportunity not only to speed-date on board, but also to stay overnight in Prague and take a city tour. So in case you don't make that instant connection during the flight, maybe solid ground will be kinder.
As aisle-seat fans, we've been burned a couple of times by middle-seat passengers who needed to get up every 10 minutes during transcontinental flights, but apparently that isn't a drawback to Europe's lonely hearts. The overnight stay is a genius idea, though. If nothing else, it's a chance to play High School Tour Group again, sans chaperones.
Related Stories:
· SkyEurope Has Routes, Deals and Denim [Jaunted]
· SkyDate [SkyEurope.com]
· Airlines coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: pterjan]
Tags: SkyEurope / Airlines / LCCs / Low Cost Carriers / → All Tags
SkyEurope Has Routes, Deals and Denim
Central European LCC SkyEurope might've had humble beginnings in Bratislava, and tricked a few people by inventing an airport called "Vienna Bratislava" (which actually meant taking an hour-long bus ride across a border checkpoint after arriving in ordinary old Bratislava). But in recent years they just keep expanding and the deals are still as cheap as ever.
With dozens of flight routes that now center around Bratislava, Prague, Budapest and Krakow, there are more being added every time we turn our head. This October, new flights will include runs to the London Luton airport from Bratislava, Prague and Poprad in the Tatra Mountains, and a connection to Kosice in eastern Slovakia too.
Since they're now showing "all inclusive" prices on their website, it's much easier to be impressed with the bargains: Even at short notice there are heaps of flights on many routes for just €29 (less than $40) including taxes and charges. And last time we flew SkyEurope, the flight attendants wore denim: We like that.
Related Stories:
· Site Scramble: SkyEurope [Jaunted]
· SkyEurope [Official Site]
[Photo: pterjan]
Tags: Airlines / Budget Airlines / SkyEurope / → All Tags
Airline Report: SkyEurope Will Pay You
Here's a decent stunt from JetBlue's chic cousin from Budapest: SkyEurope will "pay" you to book a ticket with them between now and Sunday. The Czech LCC has discounted some ticket prices to minus 10 koruna, though that equals real money in dollars.
'Course, you'll end up paying for fees in positive dough, so the pitch isn't quite what it seems--what else is new with airline promos? Routes featured include Dublin to Bratislava, and London to Krakow. A one-way fare on that DUB-BTS leg will end up costing about $23. Not bad, even as we're all being spoiled by the competetive European discount airline market.
[Photo: GemeinWesen]
Related Stories:
· SkyEurope to pay people to fly [Boston Globe]
· Site Scramble: SkyEurope [Jaunted]
Tags: Site Scramble / Airlines / SkyEurope / → All Tags
Site Scramble: SkyEurope
The differences between European LCCs can be quite drastic. To be fair, most try to follow the swish JetBlue model, not the frenzied Crazy Eddie experience that Ryanair offers. One of our favorites from the former category is Central European carrier SkyEurope.
The site is made up of soothing blue and white tones--high-impact sales is not the traditional way of operating in that part of the world--clearly displaying where the airline flies with a simple flash map on the front door. Fares on sale are also on the front door, making this close to the simplest interface we've encountered thus far.
Searching for fares is a little bit more difficult, although they do display dates surrounding those you're considering, if you want to burrow for added value. We wish taxes were displayed with the price of each leg, though, not after you've selected them. In the cool toys area, there is the option to send your itinerary via SMS to your phone. We're not sure if it's useful--we just said it was cool.
Between the leather seats we see pictured in the cabin and the lovely flight attendants, think of this as JetBlue's chic cousin from Budapest.
Related Stories:
· Site Scramble [Jaunted]
Tags: Good Fare / Krakow / SkyEurope / → All Tags
Good Fare: SkyEurope Masters the Sky Hook
Jaunted Good Fare: $72 OW, London-Krakow
SkyEurope is a low-cost carrier based in Bratislava, though they have hubs in four outher Central European cities, including Budapest and Prague. Instead of being wedded to a big hub, like Transavia in Schiphol, or to the idea of tiny regional airports an hour or more from a the city's center (as with Ryanair's Frankfurt/Hahn destination), they keep things simple by spreading out their base cities in the region. As a result, they are poised to offer fares that are convienient and cheap; a rare combination.
We've chosen this fare--part of a SkyEurope sale to the UK--which is about $72 OW after taxes, as a good pick. You're not flying out of Luton, as with easyJet, and you're not stuck with the miserable Ryanair experience flying to Krakow. Krakow also has the advantage of being slightly less chockablock with stag parties in comparison with the Baltic countries and Prague. For now, anyway.
[Image via dElay/Flickr]
Related Stories:
· Previous Bad Fares [Jaunted]
