Sky Express (Greece)

Sky Express
IATA ICAO Callsign
GQ[1] SEH AIR CRETE
Founded 2005 (2005)
Hubs
Secondary hubs Heraklion International Airport
Fleet size 11
Destinations 30
Company slogan The airline of Crete
Headquarters Athens, Attica, Greece
Website www.skyexpress.gr

Sky Express, legal name Cretan Aeronautical Exploitations (Greek: Κρητικές Αεροπορικές Εκμεταλλεύσεις Kritikés Aeroporikés Ekmetallefsis),[2] is a Greek airline headquartered in Athens International Airport. It was established in 2005 and so far operates a number of domestic flights, serving 29 destinations.

History

The airline was established in early 2005 by Cpt. Miltiadis Tsagkarakis, a former Olympic Airlines director-general and pilot as well as George Mavrantonakis, former Chief Operating Officer and Accountable Manager of Olympic Airlines and former Advisor to the President of Olympic Airways.[3] Operations commenced in July 2005,[4] including scheduled, charter and cargo flights, air-taxi, emergency medical services, excursions and sightseeing. Sky Express Aircargo was later established in a joint effort with the Finaval Group, focusing on cargo transport between Europe and the Far East.

Logo controversy

The airline's initial logo was inspired by the flag of the Cretan State, a semi-independent state under the Ottoman Empire. The flag of the Cretan State was composed of a white cross extending to the edges of the flag, with the upper-hoist canton in red, featuring a white star symbolizing Ottoman sovereignty on the island, and the other squares in blue, symbolizing the Greeks of Crete. The flag has also been adopted as a symbol of the Cretan independence pseudomovement. The logo was not well-received, and following complaints by the public in Greece, especially Cretans, the logo was changed. The company has said that they do not consider the flag to be offending, since it represented a milestone in the unification of Crete with the Kingdom of Greece, but changed their logo anyway in order to avoid any further confusion.[5]

Destinations

Codeshare Agreements

Fleet

Sky Express BAe Jetstream 41 at Heraklion International Airport

The fleet of Sky Express consists of the following aircraft:[8]

Sky Express Fleet
Aircraft In Fleet Due Passengers Notes
ATR 42-300 1 — 46
ATR 42-500 6 — 48-50
ATR 72-500 3 — 70
BAe Jetstream 41 1 — 29 [9]
Total 11 0

Incidents and accidents

  • On 12 February 2009 a British Aerospace Jetstream 31 registered SX-SKY experienced a right main gear collapse after landing inbound from Rhodes.[10] None of the 15 passengers and 3 crew were injured, but the aircraft sustained considerable damage to its right landing gear, wing and propeller that was deemed beyond economical repair, resulting in the aircraft being written-off. The cause of the accident was that the aircraft had previously suffered two heavy landings in the previous 27 which were not reported. One of the heavy landings caused a fracture in a landing gear cylinder, which propagated until the cylinder failed, causing the landing gear to collapse. SX-SKY was noted being scrapped at Heraklion airport in late February 2011.
  • On 2 February 2015 a British Aerospace Jetstream 41 aircraft registered SX-DIA, operating flight GQ-100 from Heraklion experienced a left main gear collapse and runway excursion after landing hard on Rhodes due to strong winds. None of the 16 passengers or 3 crew were injured. The aircraft received substantial damage.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "IATA - Airline and Airport Code Search". iata.org. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  2. ↑ "Ιστορική αναδρομή". skyexpress.gr. Archived from the original on 2 July 2014.
  3. ↑ "Profile". skyexpress.gr. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011.
  4. ↑ "Sky Express". airlinesxl.com. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  5. ↑ ΔΕΛΤΙΟ ΤΥΠΟΥ (in Greek). www.skyexpress.gr. 25 May 2007. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
  6. ↑ Liu, Jim (6 February 2017). "Germania / Sky Express to launch codeshare service in S17". UBM (UK) Ltd. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  7. ↑ Liu, Jim (20 June 2017). "Blue Air / Sky Express begins intra-Greece codesharing from June 2017". UBM (UK) Ltd. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  8. ↑ "Sky Express fleet", Flightradar 24, accessed 1 June 2018
  9. ↑ Sky Express. "Fleet - Sky Express - The airline of Crete". www.skyexpress.gr. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  10. ↑ "Accident: Sky Express JS31 at Heraklion on Feb 12th 2009, right main gear collapsed on landing". www.avherald.com. 15 February 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  11. ↑ "Accident: Sky Express JS41 at Rhodes on Feb 2nd 2015, gear collapse and runway excursion on landing". www.avherald.com. 2 February 2015. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
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