History
SkyEurope was established in November 2001 and started operations on 13 February 2002 (domestic flight Bratislava-Kosice operated with 30 seat turboprop Embraer 120 ER Brasília). It was founded by Alain Skowronek (Chairman) and Christian Mandl (Chief Executive) and financed by EBRD, ABN AMRO and EU funds. Although some criticized the decision to base an airline in Bratislava, Mandl saw the effect that the low cost carriers were having in Western Europe and envisioned it going a step further with a low-cost carrier in a low cost country. Mandl and Skowronek were aware of the catchment area of Bratislava Airport with the airport being located within a one-hour drive of Vienna, Brno and Győr and a catchment area of four countries: (Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia).
On 27 September 2005, the airline went public on the Vienna and Warsaw stock exchanges. The initial public offering price was 6 EUR, valuing the company at 120 million euro. The IPO on the Vienna and Warsaw stock exchanges was the first by a central European low-cost carrier and the first by any Slovak company. In the following weeks, share price decreased to 5 EUR/share. On 10 November 2005, investment bank CA-IB, member of HVB Group, issued a buy recommendation with target price 6.5 EUR. The bank assumed that first-mover advantage, a term often used during the previous dot-com bubble, would "provide competitive edge".
In 2006, SkyEurope announced it would cut ticket prices to minus 10 koruna, claiming to become the first airline that pays people for flying with it. The advertised negative price did not include fees charged to the passenger.
2007 marked a year of growth and change for SkyEurope. The airline opened a base at Vienna International Airport in March 2007, placing two new 737-700s operating sixteen routes. In October 2007, SkyEurope closed its hubs in Kraków and Budapest, thus reallocating its aircraft to the hubs in Prague and Vienna.
In 2008, SkyEurope entered into a partnership with České dráhy creating the CD Sky alliance whereby SkyEurope tickets would be sold for a fixed price at railway stations in Brno and Prague.
In October - December 2008 SkyEurope transported 726,656 passengers, bringing the 12-month passenger total to 3.577 million. Its major Central European competitor Wizz Air claims to have carried 5.8 million passengers in 2008.
The company's last CEO (acting) was Nick Manoudakis, who replaced Jason Bitter after his sudden departure from the airline - to staff and business partners, Bitter appeared as "a captain who escapes a sinking boat". Members of the Supervisory board were its Chairman Iordanis Karatzas (since 1 October 2006), Jeremy Blank (since 1 October 2006), Christophe Aurand (since 1 October 2006, works as CEO of York UK Advisors), Hans Källenius (re-elected 30 March 2007, represents minority shareholders) and Josef In-Albon (since 30 March 2007).
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