Hundreds of passengers were left stranded abroad after Greek airline SkyGreece announced that due to Greece’s financial state, it can no longer provide a service.
The Athens-based start-up had only been running commercial flights for three months, operating flights out of Montreal, Toronto, New York JFK, Athens, Thessaloniki, Budapest and Zagreb.
Shortly after launching scheduled international services in May, SkyGreece suffered financial setbacks, mainly as a result of capital controls.
“SkyGreece Airlines would like to apologise to all of its passengers who have been affected as a result of the company’s current operational crisis,” the official statement said.
“The founders, managers and employees of SkyGreece care deeply about their passengers and have been working around the clock to resolve the problem.”
The airline, which only owns one Boeing 767-300 ER, and leases an Airbus A330-200, that is based in New York, had pre-sold thousands of tickets to and from Greece.
“In spite of the resulting immediate and dramatic reduction in ticket sales, the company’s founders have worked tirelessly to maintain scheduled service,” a statement on the airline’s website reads.
“Unfortunately, as a result of recent technical issues, the company is now facing a system-wide multi-day delay and significant additional expenses. Passengers should contact their travel agent to arrange for alternate travel and/or accommodations.”
A Facebook group has since been set up called SkyGreece Troubles, with nearly 1,000 people launching complaints. At the same time, owner of SkyWay Tours, Aris Sideratos, says that he has “no clue of what’s going to happen” in terms of getting customers home.
One passenger, Alex Repka, was forced to shell out extra cash last week when his flight back to Toronto from Budapest was cancelled.
“When I had arrived and walked to their counter, there was nobody there, just a sheet of paper stating the numbers that I could call to figure something out,” he told CTV News.
Bessie Broussalis says her elderly father is stranded in Greece after his return flight to Canada was cancelled.
“He is elderly. He is 74 years old. He has medication that he will run out of,” she added.
Source: Quebec News, DailyMail