It’s not the news that hundreds of stranded passengers wanted to hear, but a long-awaited company announcement after days of radio silence finally arrived in the form of a press release, issued on August 27, 2015 from their offices in Athens that SkyGreece was “temporarily” ceasing all operations.
According to the press release, the company was adversely impacted by the Greek financial crisis and “recent technical issues” and went on to say that “the founders, managers and employees of SkyGreece care deeply about their passengers and have been working around the clock to resolve the problem.”
This doesn’t hold true with dozens upon dozens of angry passengers who are stranded on both sides of the Atlantic who have heard absolutely nothing from the airline, which also deactivated its Facebook and Twitter accounts a ago, stopped answering telephones and left photocopied scraps of paper at ticket counters instructing passengers to contact an email address “[email protected]”.
More than a dozen passengers we spoke with said they emailed, phoned and visited offices of the airline in Montreal and Toronto and never heard a word from the airline or any of its representatives.
The press release suggested that “passengers should contact their travel agent to arrange for alternate travel and/or accommodations” but failed to offer any information about refunds for flights that passengers paid for, instead offering text from European Union law outlining passenger rights in the event of a delayed or cancelled flight:
“SkyGreece Airlines, its subsidiaries and affiliates make every effort to operate to their published schedules. There are occasions, however, where it is not possible to do so and a flight may be delayed or cancelled. Should this happen, EC Regulation No 261/2004 provides passengers with specific rights. This law is applicable to all passengers departing from an airport within the EU and to all passengers travelling into an EU Member State on an EU carrier. EC Regulation No. 261/2004 explains how to claim compensation, a refund or reimbursement under this law with respect to flights operated by SkyGreece Airlines S.A.”
The fiasco unfolded on social media as disgruntled passengers took to Facebook to share stories of being stuck at Toronto and Athens airports, with no information coming from the airline.