Skyeurope is no more

Vienna-listed SkyEurope Holding AG (SKY.VI), Tuesday ceased all operations while the holding company initiated bankruptcy proceedings

Brokers on the Vienna stock exchange, where shares of the airline are traded, were the first to know late Monday evening.

"Restructuring trustee of SkyEurope today (Monday) submitted a proposal to start bankruptcy proceedings on the company – a subsidiary of SkyEurope Holding AG," Vienna stock exchange informed. This was caused by a lack of capital to finance the current activities of the company. "All the flights are cancelled immediately," representatives of the stock exchange added.

As a result the competing airlines are rushing to offer alternatives to Skyeurope. Ryanair, Wizzair and others are increasingly offering alternatives. A slew of low-fare airlines including easyJet PLC (EZJ.LN), Ryanair Holdings PLC (RYA.DB) and Wizz Air PLC Tuesday offered stranded SkyEurope passengers discounted flight tickets.

The discounted tickets followed Czech state-owned airline CSA Czech Airlines and privately held, Prague-based low-cost airline Smart Wings, which both late Monday offered SkyEurope's passengers alternative flights at discounted prices in the hope of keeping them customers in the future.

This is unlikely to alter much the traffic in Bratislava airport as Skyeurope was using Vienna as its primary base to many destinations.