8/27/2015: SkyGreece Airlines Suspends Operations

DALLAS — Today, in 2015, Athens (ATH) based SkyGreece Airlines (GW) ceased operations.

The carrier was founded in 2012 by a group of Greek-Canadian entrepreneurs and a retired priest. They aimed to offer "authentic Greek hospitality," and allow Greek ex-pats to travel to their homeland.

An ex-Martinair Holland (MP) Boeing 767-300ER (SX-BPN) named 'Taxiarhis' was acquired in December 2013 to operate services between ATH and North America. It also planned to use an Airbus A340-300 christened 'Agios Dimitrios.'

Operations commenced in 2014 with charter services to the UK, Sweden, Somalia and Eritrea, plus several Hajj season flights for Royal Air Maroc (AT) and Air Madagascar (MD).

Its inaugural transatlantic flight from ATH to Montreal (YUL) and Toronto (YYZ) took off on May 23, 2015. GW also flew other services to New York (JFK), Thessaloniki (SKG), Budapest (BUD) and Zagreb (ZAG). The flights proved popular with good load factors up until the airline's grounding.

"Financial Setbacks"

An announcement made by the airline at the time said: "SkyGreece Airlines would like to apologize to all of its passengers who have been affected as a result of the company's current operational crisis. The founders, managers and employees of SkyGreece care deeply about their passengers and have been working around the clock to resolve the problem."

"Shortly after launching scheduled international service in May, SkyGreece suffered financial setbacks as a result of the Greek economic crisis. In spite of the resulting immediate and dramatic reduction in ticket sales, the company's founders have worked tirelessly to maintain scheduled service," the statement continued.

"Unfortunately, as a result of recent technical issues, the company is now facing a system-wide multi-day delay and significant additional expenses. As a result, SkyGreece management regrets to announce that it must temporarily cease all operations."

Featured image: SkyGreece Boeing 767-300ER (SX-BPN) pictured at Montreal (YUL).