SUNCLASS Airlines summer 2021 schedule for Skiathos showing two flights per week from two destinations.  Every Tuesday Copenhagen (DK-1128/1129) and Oslo (DK-1046/1047) but there is a possibility to have every Sunday Göteborg and/or Stockholm. It is too early to finalize any information regarding schedules from December 2020 for next summer.

Here is the new brand of SUNCALSS Airlines.

Athens, 25th February 2020: PrivateFly, the leading private jet booking platform, organizes an annual poll inviting travelers from around the world to choose the most scenic airport approaches in six different regions, namely Europe, North America, Central/South America & The Caribbean, Asia, Africa & The Middle East, and Australasia. In this year’s poll, a total of 74 airports have been nominated, based on criteria such as the location of the airstrip and its approach over scenic cityscapes, islands, coasts or mountaintops, while results from polls of previous years have also been taken into account. Voters are asked to select their favorite airport for each region. Skiathos Airport makes its debut in Europe’s most Scenic Airport category, featuring one of the world’s most breathtaking landing strips, already a point of reference for the international plane spotting community, members of which have already dubbed Skiathos “Greece’s own Saint Martin”.

Voting is already open and will close on March 15th. You can select your favorite Scenic Airport in Europe by clicking on this link.

At this point, it is worth noting that the renovation of Skiathos Airport has been completed, comprising:
1. Expansion by 2,185 m2 and refurbishment of the existing terminal
2. Reconfiguration of the aircraft parking area
3. Construction of new fire station
4. 10% increase in the number of check-in counters
5. 70% increase in the number of departure gates (from 3 to 5)
6. Doubling of the number of baggage reclaim belts
7. Installation of modern baggage handling system
8. Construction of new guard house
9. Redevelopment of existing forecourt and parking

Notes for summer timetable:
(The text below was written before March 1, 2020. With RED TEXT are additional notes after Covid-19). At the bottom of current page recent news, reschedules ans cancellations for summer 2020 timetable at Skiathos.

Bluebird Airlines flights between Skiathos and Tel-Aviv may change on Friday, to late evening.
It is not clear yet if TUS and Bluebird will fly from Tel-Aviv or it is the same tour operator. According to information provided by the end of November, TUS Air was supposed to use Boeing 737-800 on Tel Aviv-Skiathos route. Most probable, we expect to have TUS Air Fokker 70 on route Tel Aviv-Skiathos twice a week.

Still, we may see changes on TUS Air flights since the rebranding of the airline is not yet finalized. Initial plan was to rebrand to Air Elegance, but that is no longer valid. According to latest info, the airline will be rebranded with a new name and due to lack of airplanes, they may use Sukhoi Superjets.

Laudamotion flights will be operated by Ryanair Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The initial request for Skiathos flights was 1st of April to 24th of October 2020, but April and October were on separate request. Initially, sales started for April and October, but very soon they disappeared from the system.

Extra Austrian airlines flight from Graz on Sunday, will be replacing the gap of Astra Airlines flights. The Greek carrier was supposed to operate every Sunday the route Skiathos-Klagenfurt-Graz-Skiathos with 112-seater BAE-146 from 31st of May to 4th of October 2020. Unfortunately, Astra Airlines ceased operations and the route was replaced by 76-seater Dash 8Q400 between 31st of May and 27th of September 2020.

During the end of October till early November, we saw a lot of news for summer 2020 routes at Skiathos. It is very hard to provide accurate information from November of a year, to May of the next one. After Thomas Cook collapse, that kind of information became hard to be accurate. Calendar is showing early March and flights are not finalized yet! The results out of this:

Transavia France will not operate flights to Skiathos for summer 2020

Easyjet will not operate flights to Skiathos for summer 2020.

The summer season of 2020 will be a milestone of a transition from charter carriers, to low-cost airlines era. Few airlines, such Easyjet for example, didn’t take the risk to make an expansion based on Thomas Cook gap. End of the 2020 season will be very interesting, especially for a destination such as Skiathos. We will see if Thomas Cook gap from UK could be recovered in just one or two seasons.
From our experience, it is impossible to recover 100% of Thomas Cook loss in less than 7-8 years. That experience came out of Excel Airways collapse back in 2008 (details can be found on article of the Greek civil aviation magazine “REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT” in Greek language).

Here is a comparison of UK traffic between (actual) summer 2019 flights and (upcoming) summer 2020 flights

After mid March 2020 aviation industry changed a lot. We are not talking for a “negative effect” for Skiathos traffic. We are talking about worldwide collapse of air transport…
We expect that till the end of March, it will be very unlike to see any passenger airplane in flight, at least in Europe. Most of the touristic facilities will stay closed till the end of April anyway. But even if they start to operate by early May or even June (we doubt it…) it looks very unlike to find a “survived” airline to visit our island!

Lets talk about airlines related with our small airport in Skiathos.

1.0 Condor already got an illegal government loan in October to survive (from now on state financial support will be legal) through the winter 2019-2020. How will they survive now? How would an investor fund an airline like this during such a crisis?

1.1 Aegean Airlines was supposed to participate to Croatia Airlines privatization and together to cover the missing gap of Adria Airways in Slovenia. Flight Ljubljana-Chios-Skiathos was possible to operate for summer 2020 or 2021 under this scenario.

1.2 Ryanair was supposed to operate Laudamotion flight Vienna-Skiathos for 2020. On 16 March 2020 Ryanair announced that is planning to ground even ALL fleet till further notice (details here). However the press release was removed one day later. But if you read the press release you will understand the financial impact on an airline. There is no information if the flight will operated nornaly or not, since effective 17 March 2020 Ryanair (incuding Laudamotion) is offering refunding of booking cancellation to all passengers.

1.3 By November 1st 2019, with the initial request of flights for the summer 2020, we noticed a huge expansion of TUI in Skiathos. It was very hard to believe that TUI would successfully operate that schedule (available here). Thomas Cook gap has nothing to do with new destinations as Doncaster and Exeter,for Skiathos. Thomas Cook took over Monarch a couple of years ago, and in 2019 the airplanes were still carrying basic Monarch liveries. Thomas Cook ceased operations,before completing the repaint of Monarch aircraft! To be more specific, last flight of Thomas Cook at Skiathos operated by an ex Monarch painted aircraft as reported here. So after Thomas Cook collapse,we see TUI stepping on the same road! So,here is the result:

TUI Group live market analysis (You can check it in real time here)

1.4 SAS first flight is supposed to land in Skiathos by 9 May 2020. No SAS flight is expected before 1 June 2020 (by now)

Unfortunately we expect to see much more traffic loss day by day …

Even Covid-19 problem ends for i.e. on April 1, 2020, the airline industry requires a lot of time to resume operations back to normal.  So much time that current summer season in Skiathos is almost lost.

Always airlines’ fleets can be grounded in a minute but unfortunately the opposite is not that fast…

Many believe that “Covid-19” will cause that impact to several airlines. The truth is that “Covid-19” accelerates the time by 1-2 years…

23 March 2020: Finnair announced cancellation of Skiathos flights for summer 2020 – Finnair schedule was for 11 flights from Helsinki from 28 May to 6 August with total 3.168 seats

24 March 2020: Ryanair (and Laudamotion) announced that the fleet will remain grounded till end of May 2020

Further expansion means Jet2.com and Jet2holidays has almost 2.2 MILLION seats on sale for Summer 20 – over HALF A MILLION more than last year, a 32% capacity increase.

Fourth additional aircraft announced today, meaning 14 based aircraft at Birmingham Airport this summer

TEN OUT OF TAN! TEN BRAND NEW SUMMER destinations to choose from means an incredible 50 hotspots on sale from Birmingham Airport this Summer!

8th January 2020: Jet2.com and Jet2holidays has announced details of its latest expansion at Birmingham Airport, meaning that the leading leisure airline and package holiday specialist now has over 2.2 MILLION seats on sale for Summer 20, giving local holidaymakers more choice and flexibility than ever before.

In response to the continued demand for its award-winning flights and holidays, the company has introduced TEN BRAND NEW destinations for Summer 20 and is announcing a fourth additional aircraft into its fleet from mid-July, meaning it will have 14 based aircraft at Birmingham Airport this summer.

This fleet will support a hugely expanded operation, with almost 2.2 million seats now on sale – over half a million more seats than last summer – which represents a capacity increase of 32%.

As well as supporting this expansion, the additional aircraft means that the UK’s second largest tour operator can offer flexible duration holidays to even more customers. Jet2holidays pioneered this concept to UK holidaymakers over ten years ago in response to the increasing number of people looking for a holiday outside of the traditional 7- or 14-night period. Through Jet2holidays, customers have complete control of the duration of their holiday, in line with their budget and requirements.

Today’s announcement means that Jet2.com and Jet2holidays is also adding more flights to popular destinations across Greece, Turkey and Spain during the peak summer season. The extra flying announced today is as follows:

Skiathos – a brand new destination for Summer 20, the addition of a new Saturday service means two services every week and more flexibility for customers.
Corfu – new Monday and Thursday services means up to six services every week.
Kos – introduction of a Thursday service means up to four services every week.
Rhodes – now up to six weekly services thanks to the addition of new Wednesday and Saturday flights.
Zante – a new Wednesday service means customers can choose from up to five weekly services.
Bodrum – a new Friday service means up to three services every week.
Dalaman – even more choice and flexibility thanks to the addition of a new Tuesday service, meaning up to nine weekly services.
Fuerteventura – a new Tuesday service means up to five services every week.
Ibiza – up to nine weekly services thanks to the addition of Friday and Sunday services.

In recent months, Jet2.com and Jet2holidays has made a number of exciting announcements regarding its Summer 20 programme from Birmingham Airport, including ten brand new destinations, four of which are in Greece. These new destinations are Skiathos, Preveza, Kefalonia, Santorini, Murcia, Barcelona, Lisbon, Budapest, Nice and Innsbruck.

This is on top of significant expansion to many popular sunspots such as the Canaries, Balearics, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Italy, France and Malta.

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays said: “This hugely expanded programme has come in response to the continued demand for our award-winning flights and holidays from customers in Birmingham and across the West Midlands. Over half a million extra seats, four additional aircraft, and ten brand new destinations represents significant growth at Birmingham Airport, and we are delighted to be offering holidaymakers so much choice and flexibility. With so much to choose from, alongside all the benefits that make customers choose us time and time again, we are looking forward to an exciting summer filling our aircraft with happy holidaymakers.”

Tom Screen, Aviation Director, Birmingham Airport said: “Over half a million extra seats for summer 2020 from Birmingham Airport to popular sunshine destinations with Jet2.com and Jet2holidays is fabulous news for our customers. This is a key booking time for holidaymakers, so to have this extra capacity on destinations ensures that our customers have both choice and flexibility when booking their holidays. Jet2.com and Jet2holidays is a trusted brand and we are delighted that they are expanding and growing with additional aircraft and routes from Birmingham Airport.”

First flight will be on Saturday 2 May 2020 and will operate till Wednesday 30 September 2020 as below:

Wednesday
OE-240 Vienna-Skiathos 09:50 B738 (Ryanair)
OE-241 10:50 Skiathos Vienna B738 (Ryanair)

Saturday
OE-240 Vienna-Skiathos 10:05 B738 (Ryanair)
OE-241 10:35 Skiathos Vienna B738 (Ryanair)

Tickets sales are opened effective end of September 2019

Below some photos of Fly Niki aircraft at Skiathos before 2016…

Ving Group, Ving, Spies, Tjäreborg, Globetrotter and Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia decide to support financially the Scandinavian division, by 1.5 million € since it was a profitable travel business.

As reported by management of Thomas Cook Scandinavia, the collapse of Mother Company Thomas Cook UK may not have direct impact on Scandinavian division, but there are consequences…

Since the hotel owners had a huge impact in many countries after Thomas Cook collapse, their policy in terms of credit and insurance issues will affect the market for Scandinavian division in the future.

The resume of flight operations by Thomas Cook Scandinavia is listed to the positive news for Skiathos traffic for the moment, but we have to wait for the initial flight requests for summer 2020.

During summer 2019 Thomas Cook Scandinavia operates two weekly flights (Copenhagen and Oslo) by 212 seat Airbus A321. Last Copenhagen flight was on 10 September 2019 and last Oslo flight on 17th.

Below some photos of Thomas Cook Scandinavia at Skiathos…

ADRIA AIRWAYS LEAVES STAR ALLIANCE
Slovenian airline Adria Airways, headquartered in Ljubljana, has ceased to be a member of Star Alliance effective 02 October 2019.
The departure of Adria Airways from Star Alliance follows the company’s recent bankruptcy developments and cessation of all flight operations as of 30 September.
This has been a regrettable development following 15 years of Adria Airways’ membership in Star Alliance.
Star Alliance members Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines and SWISS have announced additional routes and frequencies to Ljubljana.

Adria Airways was the only airline connecting Skiathos with Slovenia. We are not expecting anyone else to fill that gap. Chios island was a bigger impact, since Adria was the ONLY charter flight!

An album with photos of Adria Airways at Skiathos can be found HERE.

Relevant post

Adria Airways suspends flight operations

Announcement of bankruptcy
Zoisova 2, 4000 KranjSt 2704/2019OKLICo začetku stečajnega postopka nad pravno osebo1. Okrožno sodišče v Kranju je s sklepom opr. št. St 2704/2019z dne 2.10.2019začelo stečajni postopek naddolžnikom – pravno osebo:ADRIA AIRWAYS, Slovenski letalski prevoznik, d.o.o., Brnik – AerodromZgornji Brnik 130 H, 4210Brnik – Aerodrommatična številka: 5156505000davčna številka: 510494062. Za upravitelja je bil imenovan: JanezPustatičnik3. Upniki naj v treh mesecih po objavi tega oklica prijavijo svoje terjatve ter ločitvene in izločitvene pravicev stečajnem postopku. Zadnji dan roka za prijavo terjatev ter ločitvenih in izločitvenih pravic je 3.1.2020.4. Če upnik do poteka roka iz 3. točke tega oklica ne prijavi terjatve v stečajnem postopku, njegova terjatev vrazmerju do stečajnega dolžnika po petem odstavku 296. člena ZFPPIPP preneha in sodišče prijavozavrže. 5. Če upnik do poteka roka iz 3. točke tega oklica ne prijavi ločitvene pravice, ločitvena pravica po petemodstavku 298. člena ZFPPIPP preneha.6. Če upnik zamudi rok za prijavo izločitvene pravice, izločitvena pravica ne preneha, vendar prepoznoprijavljena oziroma neprijavljena izločitvena pravica ni ovira za prodajo premoženja, ki je predmet teizločitvene pravice v stečajnem postopku. V takem primeru izločitveni upnik po petem odstavku 299.člena ZFPPIPP s prodajo premoženja izgubi izločitveno pravico.7. Prijava terjatve mora biti vložena v enem izvodu tako, da jo upnik osebno vloži na vložišču tega sodiščaali pošlje po pošti na naslov tega sodišča, naveden v zgornjem levem kotu tega oklica. Prijava terjatve bopravočasna, če bo do poteka roka iz 3. točke tega oklica vložena na vložišču ali oddana s priporočenopoštno pošiljko8. Odvetnik, ki zastopa stranko v postopku zaradi insolventnosti, mora prijavo terjatev in druge vloge strankevložiti v elektronski obliki, podpisani z varnim elektronskim podpisom, overjenim s kvalificiranimpotrdilom (prvi odstavek 123.a člena ZFPPIPP). Če vloga ni vložena v elektronski obliki, se zanjo neuporabljajo pravila o nepopolni vlogi in jo sodišče zavrže (drugi odstavek 123.a člena ZFPPIPP).Odvetniku za zastopanje stranke v postopku zaradi insolventnosti ni treba predložiti pooblastila (četrtiodstavek 123.a člena ZFPPIPP).9. Prijava terjatve mora vsebovati:a) Opravilno številko: St 2704/2019115-21stran 1/2
b) Identifikacijske podatke o upniku:– če je upnik pravna oseba, podjetnik ali zasebnik: firmo oziroma ime, sedež in poslovni naslov termatično številko,– če je upnik fizična oseba: osebno ime in naslov stalnega prebivališča.c) Določen zahtevek za priznanje terjatve, ki mora vsebovati znesek glavnice terjatve.d) Če upnik poleg glavnice terjatve uveljavlja obresti do začetka stečajnega postopka, mora zahtevek zapriznanje terjatve vsebovati kapitalizirani znesek obresti, obračunanih za obdobje od dospelosti terjatvedo začetka stečajnega postopka. Če zahtevek za priznanje terjatve ne vsebuje kapitaliziranega zneskaobresti, se za prijavo terjatve ne uporabljajo pravila o nepopolnih vlogah, temveč velja, in nasprotnidokaz ni dovoljen, da upnik v stečajnem postopku ne uveljavlja obresti za obdobje od dospelostiterjatve do začetka stečajnega postopka (2. točka petega odstavka 60. člena ZFPPIPP).e) Če upnik poleg glavnice terjatve uveljavlja stroške, ki so mu nastali z uveljavljanjem terjatve v sodnemali drugem postopku pred začetkom stečajnega postopka, mora zahtevek za priznanje terjatve vsebovatitudi zneske teh stroškov. Če zahtevek za priznanje terjatve ne vsebuje zneska teh stroškov, se za prijavoterjatve ne uporabljajo pravila o nepopolnih vlogah, temveč velja, in nasprotni dokaz ni dovoljen, daupnik v stečajnem postopku ne uveljavlja teh stroškov (šesti odstavek 60. člena ZFPPIPP).f) Opis dejstev, iz katerih izhaja utemeljenost zahtevka, in dokaze o njih. Upnik mora prijavi terjatvepriložiti morebitne listinske dokaze o dejstvih, iz katerih izhaja utemeljenost zahtevka za priznanjeterjatve. Če prijava terjatve ne vsebuje opisa teh dejstev in dokazov ali če ji niso priloženi listinskidokazi, se zanjo ne uporabljajo pravila o nepopolnih vlogah, temveč upnika bremenijo stroškimorebitnega postopka za ugotovitev obstoja terjatve, če je bila terjatev prerekana (četrti odstavek 60.člena ZFPPIPP).Dne 2.10.2019

TUS Airways has been in the forefront of local news over the past few days, with much speculation over its future.

Andrew Pyne, the CEO of TUS Airways, commented on this speculation today.

‘First, let me be clear: TUS Airways is not suspending operations! It is however perfectly correct that we intend to operate a charter programme during the Winter rather than maintain scheduled services beyond 31 October 2019. The reason for this is very simple: we are embarking on a major restructuring of the airline – a rebranding, a re-fleeting, reinvention as a pan European airline rather than a purely regional operation. Given the work and effort involved in this transformation, it makes sense to reduce the scale of operations – temporarily. By Summer 2020, we intend to be a significantly larger airline, a true national airline for Cyprus, promoting Larnaca as a major aviation hub.’

Mr Pyne, has over 32 years of aviation experience starting his career with British Airways. He joined the management of TUS as CEO earlier in 2019 to plan and then execute the restructuring process.

Skiathoslandings.com Comment: According to our information TUS Airways planned to operate by past summer (2019) Airbus A320 family aircraft replacing Fokker 70/100 (hard to find spare parts on reasonable price on the market). A lot of employees ex Cobalt join TUS Airways. Grounding of Boeing 737 Max, changed a lot aircraft market, in terms of availability. So we believe it was impossible for any airline to perform a fleet renewal.

Ανακοίνωση της TUS Airways:

Τις τελευταίες μέρες, γίνεται μεγάλη συζήτηση από τα Μ.Μ.Ε. για το μέλλον της TUS Airways.

Με αφορμή αυτή τη συζήτηση, ο κ. Andrew Pyne, CEO της TUS Airways, εξέδωσε την πιο κάτω ανακοίνωση.

«Αρχικά, θα ήθελα να ξεκαθαρίσω το εξής: H TUS Airways δεν σταματάει τη λειτουργία της! Παρόλα αυτά, ισχύει ότι σκοπεύουμε να ξεκινήσουμε τη λειτουργία ενός προγράμματος ναυλωμένων πτήσεων κατά τη διάρκεια του χειμώνα και να μη διατηρήσουμε τις προγραμματισμένες, τακτικές πτήσεις μας μετά την 31η Οκτωβρίου 2019. Ο λόγος αυτής της απόφασης είναι απλός: Η TUS Airways βρίσκεται στη διαδικασία αναδιάρθρωσης, εκσυγχρονισμού και επαναλανσαρίσματός της με νέα εταιρική ταυτότητα, καθώς και με διαφορετικό στόλο αεροσκαφών, με στόχο την εκ νέου εδραίωσή της ως μια πανευρωπαϊκή αεροπορική εταιρεία και όχι ως μια περιφερειακή. Δεδομένων των προσπαθειών που καταβάλλονται προς την κατεύθυνση της επίτευξης αυτού του στόχου, είναι απολύτως φυσιολογικό να μειώσουμε προσωρινά την κλίμακα των προσφερόμενων υπηρεσιών μας. Μέχρι το καλοκαίρι του 2020, στόχος μας είναι η TUS Airways να αποτελεί έναν σημαντικά μεγαλύτερο αερομεταφορέα, μια πραγματικά εθνική αεροπορική εταιρεία της Κύπρου, προωθώντας τη Λάρνακα ως έναν κεντρικό και βασικό αεροπορικό κόμβο.»

Ο κ. Pyne διαθέτει περισσότερα από 32 χρόνια πείρας στον τομέα της αεροπλοΐας και των αερομεταφορών, έχοντας ξεκινήσει την καριέρα του στις Βρετανικές Αερογραμμές. Εντάχθηκε στη Διεύθυνση της TUS Airways στις αρχές του 2019 σαν CEO, με στόχο τον σχεδιασμό και την υλοποίηση της διαδικασίας αναδιάρθρωσης της Εταιρείας.

Η άποψη του skiathoslandings.com: Οι πληροφορίες μας λένε ότι η TUS Airways είχε σκοπό να αντικαταστήσει τα Fokker 70/100 με αεροσκάφη οικογένειας Airbus A320 (τα ανταλλακτικά για Fokker είσαι δυσεύρετα στην αγορά και οι τιμές τους παράλογες).  Αρκετοί μάλιστα υπάλληλοι της Cobalt προσλήφθηκαν στην TUS Airways.  Η καθήλωση όμως των Boeing 737 Max άλλαξε εντελώς τα δεδομένα της αγοράς ενοικιάσεως-διαθεσιμότητας αεροσκαφών. Θα ήταν αδύνατη η αναδιάρθρωση του στόλου οποιασδήποτε αεροπορικής εταιρίας υπό τις συνθήκες αυτές.