Any one know about FLY HELLAS?

[vctenderness]

My daughter has booked a holiday to Rhodes and has been sent tickets for an airline called Fly Hellas.

I had never heard of them and looked at their website which is, to say the least, very limited.

They say they are 'Europes newest airline' and operate two A320's and an MD83 aaaargh........

Any info would be appreciated.

[SWBKCB]

It's the new name for Viking Hellas - wanting to distance themselves from the Viking name (for some reason...)

[adfly]

Fly Hellas=Viking Hellas=Viking=Phil Wyatt=XL Collapse.

Make sure you have some sort of abta/atol protection as they are probably not the most financially stable charter airline!!

[Affretage]

Fly Hellas are not regulated by the UK CAA, so if you are bookng with them, make sure that you get a proper ATOL receipt from your high street or online travel agent. Check with the CAA that the ATOL licence number quoted is a valid one and that your holiday is protected in case Viking Hellas (or FlyHellas as they are now known as) ceases operation. One last point - make sure you pay by credit card which offers an additional layer of security.

As mentioned before, this is an airline controlled by Phil Wyatt (ex CEO of failed airline XL Airways). He has a track record of stranding passengers. So be careful.

If you are travelling now or in the next 6 weeks you should be o.k. Mismanaged and/or underfunded airlines tend to run into difficulties after the peak season (July/August).

Hope everything goes well. Enjoy your holiday.

[Eftyc]

I unfortunately had the 'opportunity' to travel with this company last week. The airplane never came to pick us up and we had to wait for almost 8 hours to find another airline to do that. Also, there was nobody from the company to tell us anything at all... We just had to wait... At least, we didn't loose our money but only had to wait for 8 hours...
On the way back, they did come!!! The crew didn't say one single excuse or at least an apology. What they did ofcourse was that when we landed they told us:
We hope you enjoyed your trip and we will be happy to see you back soon.

[Eftyc]

worst airline ever

[TSR2]

worst airline ever

On what basis do you make this statement? Care to enlighten us Eftyc.

[macdo]

usual 3rd rung charterer, probably no worse than the rest. Expect the worst, and you'll probably be pleasantly surprised when it all goes to plan. Just make sure that the Travel Insurance covers airline failure, as some don't.

[emaj83]

after booking a late deal to crete we have recieved tickets for our flight on friday :confused: we are flying with 'fly hellas' should i be worried ????

[Charley B]

Our friends flew with Fly Hellas to Rhodes on 3/8 and returned on 10/8-they had no delays at all on the outward journey-they had 7 hrs delay on the return on 10th and were getting worried as no one was telling them anything as to when they were to leave Rhodes just they were delayed(their son is partially sighted and gets worried easily)
I rang fly Hellas customer sevice no here in the uk(they are apparently based at Manchester with a satellite phone) and the man there was EXTREMELY helpful and said their aircraft would be with them in an hour-and hour and a half -it was and they arrived back safely-minus an item of luggage which was well dealt with by the handling agent at Gatwick and arrived by courier the next day-think it was because they were late and in a hurry to get away-so it wasnt as bad as they expected at all-modern aircraft a320 and apart from the delay everything was fine:)
Good luck!!

[vctenderness]

I started this thread back in June and prior to my daughters departure she was switched to another airline I had not heard of - Strategic.

They actually performed very well and she left Gatwick for Rhodes and returned on time with no problems.

I wonderd why they had switched from Fly Hellas maybe they had come unstuck with their two A320's and one MD80!!

[Charley B]

Strategic have had some awful delays at Gatwick over the last few weeks-she was very lucky!!
Dont think they have many aircraft either!

[clareview]

Strategic seems to have at least 5 aircraft - 1 A330 based in Australia, one A320 working for Solomon Islands and 2 or 3 in Europe though what this has to do with Fly Helas I do not know

[MKY661]

I saw a Strategic at Manchester last month. Think it was running for Jet2

[vctenderness]

Strategic seems to have at least 5 aircraft - 1 A330 based in Australia, one A320 working for Solomon Islands and 2 or 3 in Europe though what this has to do with Fly Helas I do not know

If you read all of the thread you will have all revealed.

It was Strategic's Europe operation that was being commented on.

[clareview]

I was responding to a comment "Don't think they have many aircraft either", the they being Strategic Airlines. The comment made no reference to any one particular base. I therefore provided the information on how many aircraft Strategic has

[Chidken Sangwich]

vctenderness - I suspect your Daughter was booked with Olympic Holidays. If so, that will be why the operating Airline was changed.