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Africa venture blamed for Fly Olympic demise

Swedish carrier Fly Olympic, which operated flights from Gatwick to Stockholm and as SkyGreece to Athens, ceased trading last week.


The carrier, which also trade as Asian Pacific Around the World Travel, flew to Eritrea and Somalia from Stockholm and Athens. An Eritrean website reported 500-600 passengers stranded in Somalia, Eritrea and Iraq.


However, the CAA said few UK passengers appear to have been affected.


An announcement on the Fly Olympic site said the company had “filed for bankruptcy after 25 years in business”.


It blamed a “new operation to Africa” which “incurred losses too great for a company of our size to survive”.


A spokeswoman for Gatwick confirmed: “Fly Olympic had started operating at Gatwick but only managed three flights.”


The services operated were in early to mid-July, since when there had been no flights, she said.


The spokeswoman added: “They had cancelled several weeks’ worth of flights recently. It doesn’t appear any Gatwick passengers have been impacted in terms of being left abroad.”


The CAA said it had received no more than “a handful” of calls and advised passengers to contact their travel agent, card provider or insurance provider depending on how they booked.


It confirmed there was no financial protection in place.

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