Sky Express (Greece)

This article is about the regional airline in Greece. For the Russian budget airline, see Sky Express.

Sky Express

IATA	ICAO	Callsign
GQ^[1]	SEH	AIR CRETE

Founded

2005

Hubs

Heraklion International Airport

Fleet size

4^[2]

Destinations

Company slogan

The airline of Crete

Headquarters

Heraklion, Crete, Greece

Website

www.skyexpress.gr

Sky Express, legal name Cretan Aeronautical Exploitations (Greek: Κρητικές Αεροπορικές Εκμεταλλεύσεις),^[3] is a Greek airline headquartered in Heraklion International Airport. It was established in 2005 and so far operates a number of domestic flights, serving 18 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.^[4] Operations commenced in July 2005,^[5] 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 the flag of the Cretan independence movement recently. 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.^[6]

Destinations

Main article: Sky Express (Greece) destinations

Fleet

The fleet of Sky Express consists of the following aircraft (as of March 2016):^[7]

**Sky Express Fleet**
Aircraft	In Fleet	Passengers
ATR 42-300	3	46
ATR 42-500	1	46
Total	4

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.^[8] 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.^[9]

References

↑ "IATA - Airline and Airport Code Search". iata.org. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
↑ http://www.airfleets.net/flottecie/Sky%20Express%20Greece.htm
↑ "Ιστορική αναδρομή". skyexpress.gr. Archived from the original on 2 July 2014.
↑ "Profile". skyexpress.gr. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011.
↑ "Sky Express". airlinesxl.com. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
↑ ΔΕΛΤΙΟ ΤΥΠΟΥ (in Greek). www.skyexpress.gr. 25 May 2007. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 9 October 2011.
↑ http://www.airfleets.net/flottecie/Sky%20Express%20Greece.htm
↑ "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.
↑ "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.

External links

Airlines of Greece

Current	Aegean Airlines Aeolian Airlines Amjet Executive Astra Airlines Bluebird Airways Ellinair GainJet Aviation InterJet Mediterranean Air Freight Orange2 Airlines Olympic Air Olympus Airways Sky Express

Defunct	Aeroland Airways Aerospace One Air Go Airlines Air Greece AirSea Lines Alexandair ArGo Airways Athens Airways Cretan Airlines Cronus Airlines EuroAir Fly Hellas Hellas Jet Hellenic Imperial Airways Hellenic Airlines Hermes Airlines Macedonian Airlines Minoan Air Olympic Airlines Olympic Aviation SkyGreece Airlines Sky Wings Airlines TAE Greek National Airlines Technical and Aeronautical Holdings Venus Airlines

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