It is three times that I have flown with SkyEurope Airlines, a company operating across Europe with its main bases in Central Europe, and it is three times that those flights have been delayed for more than an hour. This has got me wondering whether SkyEurope really is the worst (major) low-cost airline flying in Europe?
On the first time the airplane we were about to use turned out to be broken just before we boarded (we were already in the bus next to the plane when they found that out). No public announcement was actually made about this, but we overheard a conversation between the bus driver and the airline mechanic. This caused a two and a half hour delay, and it was only after the first hour of waiting that they gave any indication as for how late we would be. No one apologised, which I found really annoying, as well. Finally, after we finally boarded the other aircraft and one of the seats we were given also turned out to malfunction (it leaned back if you put any weight on it), I decided to be wary of SkyEurope and attempt to use other airlines whenever possible.
However, last month when looking for flights to my chosen holiday destination it turned out that SkyEurope was my only real option.
Our flight out last week was over an hour late. What happened was we were waiting for boarding, and the boarding time came, and it passed, and no announcement was made. We sat there in front of the gate, expecting someone to explain to us what was going on, but no information was given. (Later on the captain told us that some paperwork had been mishandled.) Three quarters of an hour later we were suddenly told to board the buses that would take us to the plane, with no apologies or even a mention about us being behind the schedule from the people handling the boarding. To add to the farce, the buses (hot and full of people and screaming children) then did not go anywhere for almost 15 minutes, and again no one told us why. Once we finally got on the plane, the captain actually did apologise, but also told us to hurry with the boarding as we would miss another take-off window if we weren’t quick enough. Although I am sure it was not meant to come across quite like that, it sounded like we would be at fault if we were further delayed. And we were, of course, for cramming three busloads of already irritated passangers into an aircraft in under ten minutes sounds impossible even as a concept. This added another half an hour, and we landed in our destination an hour and fifteen minutes late.
Our flight back this week was not any better. The boarding time came, it passed, and then quarter of an hour later (15 minutes before the scheduled take-off time) we were told that we would be an hour late with boarding. Again, no apologies came from the staff until the captain himself did so once we were seated, and explained that this was caused by the aircraft arriving late from its previous flight. A quick check into their flight schedules indicated that they leave half an hour between landing and taking off again, which is not unheard of, but somehow other airlines I have used seem to manage it much better. (SkyEurope’s seats also seem to usually come with breadcrumbs, indicating that they don’t really have time to clean the aircraft, either.) As a cherry on the cake, one of the seats we were given had its seat cushion all messed up, making sitting on it extremely uncomfortable. However, as we had by now given up the hope of ever enjoying a SkyEurope flight, we didn’t bother to ask for new seats. We arrived to our destination an hour and five minutes late.
Furthermore, although being late is annoying in itself, and we are not the only people I know who have continually had this experience with SkyEurope, my greatest problem with the airline is the way apologies are not properly made. Sure, they ought to do a better job with planning their schedules, but hiring some service-oriented people to take care of things would be my first priority, were I in a service-oriented industry such as people transportation. Here I must definitely mention EasyJet with who I have had only very positive experiences, and not least so because of their staff that really seems to be selected partly for their abilities to tell jokes, making the flights really pleasant to experience.
Finally, considering the fact that SkyEurope is one of the costlier low-cost airlines, I don’t really see any reason to use SkyEurope in the future. Next time I am going to a destination where only they fly in the budget range, I will definitely consider walking there before buying a SkyEurope ticket.
All that being said, I wonder if I have just been extremely unlucky with SkyEurope, or have other people had similarly disappointing experiences with SkyEurope? Or any other low-cost carriers, for that matter?
And are there any budget carriers that are especially good in what they do? My personal vote for the best low cost carrier in Europe would go for EasyJet. As I said, the EasyJet staff always seems to be fun and helpful, and each of the dozen or so flights I have taken with them has been AHEAD of schedule, with us landing in our destination between 10 and 40 minutes before the scheduled time. I suppose they do this on purpose, making the schedules looser than they would in reality need to be, but even if that is so, the experience for the passenger is definitely far more positive than constantly being late.
