SkyEurope madness

Week after week they ran campaigns and announced 9 Euro or 19 Euro tickets to many destinations in Europe. I remember that on their web-site they offered daily(!) flights to many destinations in Europe for first half of 2009. Obviously, lots of people rushed to book the flight tickets for the cost of a juicy steak at a steakhouse. (how about such perspective? ;))

I personally booked several return flights with them based on what I am planning my trips. But guess what? It seems like SkyEurope did some miscalculations either by hoping too much on tourism boom in the period of crisis, or relying on the fact that low price tickets would be sold out immediately. Or maybe they are going bankrupt... or from what I heard, they were leasing planes from other companies for their flights and that now they lost those planes as well... Whatever is the true reason, company screwed up their recent promotional campaigns and most likely it will lead to loss of positive reputation it had so far. As a result, me and many of my friends started to receive cancellation emails for some of the flights, and we had to rebook them for the following or previous days. And it has been happening for the last few days. As an excuse they wrote us that it was due to the harmonization of their route network... They either offer rebooking or refund, but it is very hard to reach their agents by phone! ( I managed that after several trials and long waiting) I guess you get what you paid for; low prices for unreliable and low services.

I will personally think twice now before I book a flight with them. So far I had enjoyed their flight services, but I don't want my trip plans to suffer from such cancellations.

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Moral of the story (old good proverb); never put all your eggs into one basket.
See full list of low-cost airlines operating in Europe here.
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Full list of low-cost airlines (Europe)

Please show the reference to my blog in any kind of usage (including copy+paste) of the below low-cost airlines list. List was compiled from various sources, and it contains only the currently operating low-cost airlines in Europe. (Please suggest if I missed any!) Low cost airlines for Americas and Asia will follow.

Hope this list will be useful for you to find cheap flight tickets!
Cheers!
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skyeurope.com - Bratislava based (main HQ) low-cost airline. (I personally check it first before checking any other options).
From Prague to Amsterdam, Athens, Barcelona, Birmingham, Bratislava, Brussels, Bucharest, Burgas, Catania, Copenhagen, Dubrovnik, kosice, Lisbon, London, Manchester, Milan, Naples, Paris, Rome, Rimini, Thessaloniki, Split, Torino, Venice, Vienna.

easyjet.com - England based low-cost airline.
From Prague to Basel, Belfast, Bristol, Dortmund, East Midlands, Geneva, London, Milan, Newcastle.

EasyJet Switzerland (easyjet.com) - Geneva based low-cost airline. It operates scheduled services as an easyJet franchise from Geneva and Basel. Many destinations from Switzerland including Turkey and Prague.

smartwings.com - Czech Republic based low-cost airline.
From Prague to Barcelona, Budapest, Chania, Dubai(!), Heraklion, Larnaca, Las Palmas, Madrid, Mallorca, Paris, Rodes, Rome, Tenerife

clickair.com - Barcelona based low-cost airline.
From Prague only to Barcelona.

bmibaby.com - the UK’s fastest growing low-cost airline, operating services within the UK and Europe.
From Prague to UK (Birmingham, Manchester, East Midlands) only

click4sky.com - Czech Republic based new type of low-stable-cost airline which offers tickets to many destinations in Europe for 1990 CZK only! (1 Euro ~ 28 CZK) I heard that CZE is selling out its unsold tickets this way. Smart approach.

Ryanair.com - Dublin based low-cost airline.
From Prague to Dublin, daily flights.

tuifly.com - Hannover based low-cost airline.
No flights to Prague.

airberlin.com - Berlin based low-cost airline (early bookers could book everything for 29 euros). Flights to major cities in Europe plus some destinations in the Mediterranean, on the Canary Islands and in North Africa.
No flights to Prague.

condor.com - Germany based low-cost airline. Offers the especially inexpensive City Flights service from Munich to the most beautiful cities in Europe. Condor City Flights start as low as €29 one way including all surcharges.

ltu.de - Düsseldorf based low-cost airline. Main bases are Düsseldorf, Munich and Berlin Tegel airports. Cheap flights to USA and Canada. Flights to all the continents. From October 2007 flights from Berlin-Tegel to Bangkok, Melbourne, Punta Cana and Varadero.
From Prague to Toronto, Fort Myers, Miami, New York.

flymonarch.com - UK based low-cost flights from bases at London Gatwick, London Luton, Manchester and Birmingham airports. Flights to many destinations in Portugal, Spain, Canary Islands and Cyprus.
No flights from/to Prague.

firstchoice.co.uk - Uk based low-cost airline with world-wide destinations.
No flights from/to Prague.

airfinland.fi - Finland based low cost airline. Flights from Helsinki to Alicante and Malaga only.
No flights from/to Prague.

XL.com - UK based low cost airline. European and Middle Eastern leisure destinations from its three bases of London Gatwick, Manchester and Glasgow.

fr.xl.com - France based airline within the group use the XL Airways branding

de.xl.com - Germany based airline within the group use the XL Airways branding

ie.xl.com - Ireland based airline within the group use the XL Airways branding

mytravellite.com - UK based low-cost airline. Flights to many destinations including Kenya.

transavia.com - Holland based low-cost airline with flights to many European cities plus Turkey and North Afirca.
No flights from/to Prague.

blue1.com - Helsinki based low-cost airline. Flights to many European cities, plus connecting flights with SAS to different destinations.
No flights from/to Prague.

airbaltic.com - Baltics based low cost airline with many destinations including Tashkent (Uzbekistan).From Prague to Kaliningrad, Vilnius, and Riga.

centralwings.com - Poland based low cost airline. Good offers for flights to Poland.
No flights from/to Prague.

germanwings.com - Cologne-Bonn based low-cost airline with flights to major cities including cities in Russia, Turkey and Scandinavia.
From Prague to Cologne-Bonn, Berlin, Zurich, London (and many other via Cologne-Bonn).

brusselsairlines.com - Brussels based airline that offers b-light low cost tickets. World-wide destinations.
From Prague to Brussels (and many other via Brussels).

vueling.com - Barcelona based low-cost airline. many destinations in Europe and the western Mediterranean. Bases are in Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, Paris and Lisbon.
No flights from/to Prague.

norwegian.no - Oslo based low cost airline. Many destinations in Europe including Tallinn, Russian and Turkish cities.
From Prague to Oslo, Bergen, Bodo, Stavanger, Tromso, Trondheim.

Jet2.com - Leeds based low-cost airline. Offers charter services as well. Great number of European destinations from UK.
From Prague to Belfast, Manchester, Leeds, and Edinburgh.



sterling.dk - Denmark based low-cost airline.
From Prague to Copenhagen and Stockholm.

wizzair.com - Poland based low-cost airline, also operates from bases in Katowice, Warsaw, Gdansk in Poland, Budapest, Sofia and Bucharest.
No flights from/to Prague.

flybaboo.com - Geneva based low-cost airline.
No flights from/to Prague.

helvetic.com - Zurich based low-cost airline.
No flights from/to Prague.

flyglobespan.com - Scotland based low-cost airline. Flights to European destinations plus US, Canada, Egypt and Cyprus.
From Prague to Glasgow and Edinburgh.

intersky.biz - Austria based low-cost airline.
No flights from/to Prague.

spanair.com - Palma de Mallorca based low-cost airline company, and a subsidiary of Scandinavian Airlines. Main base is Son Sant Joan Airport (PMI), with hubs at Madrid and Barcelona. Flights to Algier and Casablanca.
No flights from/to Prague.

flybe.com - UK based low-cost airline. 70% domestic UK, 20% European business and 10% European leisure destinations.
No flights from/to Prague.

meridiana.it - Olbia, Italy based low-cost airline.
From Prague to Florence and Catania.

flynordic.com - Stockholm based low-cost airline. Flights to Nordic countries (incl. Estonia) and few other European destinations.
No flights from/to Prague.

malmoaviation.se - Sweden-based low-cost airline that operates only to France, Belgium and Sweden cities.
No flights from/to Prague.

volawindjet.it - Italy based low-cost airline. Operates to Russia, Spain, Romania, Greece and other Italian cities.
No flights from/to Prague.

alpieagles.com - Italy based low-cost airline. Flights to Italian cities plus Athens, Barcelona, Bucharest, Cluj Napoca, Kiev, Moscow, Nice, Odessa, Prague, Pristina, Timisoara, Tirana and Valencia.
From Prague to Barcelona, Bari, Bologna, Napoli, Palermo, Venezia.

aerarann.com - Dublin based low-cost airline. UK, France and Ireland cities are the destinations.
No flights from/to Prague.

goldenair.se - Trollhättan, Sweden based low-cost airline that operates only to cities in Sweden and Finland.
No flights from/to Prague.

jetx.is - Iceland based low-cost airline. No booking or other pages in English.

travelservice.aero - Czech Rep based airline that provides mainly charter flights.
From Prague to Tel Aviv, Stockholm, Paris, Marseille, Budapest, Milano, Roma, Madrid, London, Dublin, Alicante, Malaga, Valencia, Bilbao, Barcelona, Las Palmas, Tenerife, Hurgada, Sharm El Sheik, Faro, Funjal, Paphos, Larnaca, Agadir, Istanbul, Antalya, Tunis, Monastir, Palma de Mallorca, Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Rhodos, Korfu, Zakinthos, Preveza, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Catania, Burgas, Varna, Olbia, Cagliari, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse, Lyon, Keflavik, Split, Tivat, Bangkok, Fortaleza, Mombasa, Zanzibar.


(Sources used while compiling this list; wikipedia.org, jvdz.net)
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weekend back in Malaysia?!

The Czech Republic hopes that AirAsia X can finalise negotiations to fly to Prague by December 2007. Ambassador Dana Hunatova said there was much expectation that AirAsia would be granted landing rights to fly to the capital. (http://myairport.blogspot.com)

I heard this from my flatmate as well. She just came back from Malaysia, and was telling me that AirAsia (Malaysia based budget airline) is planning to fly to Prague directly from Kuala-Lumpur and for very good prices! Mammamia! As I don't need visa for Malaysia, I could just hop on the plane in Friday evening after work, spend the weekend plus few more off days in KL or some other Malaysian islands or even take further AirAsia flights to any other destination in SE Asia! :) Hopefully starting from December I will be spending my holidays somewhere in the tropics. What makes me save my leave days for now...

Maybe soon I'll be again in the little paradise corner.

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Low-cost flights around Europe

Noting down for future bookings...
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p.s. I am wondering why Blogger doesn't provide functions like adding tables as well, shouldn't be that difficult. Displaying data in the tables or from excel sheet is troublesome here. Inserting table/tr/td HTML tags manually is also time-consuming. Or is it a simple and fast way to do it that I don't know?
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