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Another no-frills casualty
A Polish no-frills airline that operated flights to Stansted has ceased operations leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
Air Polonia operated schedule flights for around a year before flights were suspended due to financial difficulties over the weekend. Around 53,000 customers held bookings for flights up to March 2005.
The airline flew to Stansted from Warsaw, Katowice, Poznan, Gdansk, Bydogoszcz and Szczecin.
Air Polonia faced tough competition from no-frills and full service scheduled airlines, particularly on the Warsaw route, which is also operated from London by easyJet, Wizz Air, British Airways, LOT Polish Airlines and Sky Europe.
In a deal reached between Air Polonia’s president and chief executive, Jan Litwiński and rival no-frills airline SkyEurope, stranded Air Polonia passengers will be offered free flights with the latter carrier, although airport taxes and charges will have to be paid.
Passengers with bookings to Katowice will be flown to Krakow, and all other passengers to Warsaw from where they will need to organise ground transportation. Flights are limited over the peak Christmas period and must be rebooked by December 20 for travel before the end of March 2005.
SkyEurope says its network should be able to accommodate around 90% of the 53,000 passengers booked on Air Polonia for the remaining winter season until 26 March 2005.
According to SkyEurope the gesture is being made in a bid to maintain trust between the travelling public and the low cost airline industry.
In a statement SkyEurope’s chief executive Christian Mandl said: “We have no intention to take over the company Air Polonia Ltd given the accumulated debts and liabilities. We will however create job opportunities for some of the Air Polonia staff wishing to join SkyEurope in Warsaw or Krakow”.
Air Polonia is the most recent in a long list of no-frills airlines that have gone bust this year, highlighting a loophole in consumer protection. Italian airline Volare was the most recent casualty, but others include Dutch airline V-Bird, Irish airline Jet Magic and UK carriers Now and Duo. Currently scheduled airlines – including the no-frills carriers – are not obliged to offer any form of cover against financial failure.
Report by Ginny McGrath
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