Wishful thinking

Scam master running Kon Tiki Sky

Kon Tiki Sky, also known as MAT Airways, which recently announced the launch of fourteen new destinations from Skopje, says it has not obtained a license for any of its advertised flights. It has emerged that Kon Tiki Sky is no longer owned or run by the Serbian tour operator Kon Tiki, rather, it has been taken over by Harry van Achteren, who has been involved in several scandals and bankruptcies. The airline has advertised low cost flights from Skopje to Antwerp, Ancona, Bologna, Bratislava, Basel, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Rome, Milan, Trieste, Stuttgart, Istanbul and Malmo.

However, on its website the airline states, “Kon Tiki Sky was not yet able to negotiate commercial terms, with Skopje Airport and/or local authorities, justifying the start of its scheduled routes out of an “emerging market” like Macedonia. Under the chapter “Coming Soon” on our website we mentioned all of the routes Kon Tiki Sky would like to operate out of Skopje”.

In 2004, Harry van Achteren set up jetsSky.com in his native Netherlands. The airline never took off the ground but sold “ghost” flights via its website, meaning it sold tickets for nonexistent flights. Last year van Achteren was arrested on fraud charges in connection to the collapse of the Antwerp Container Repair & Trading Company. Skopje Airport, which has already seen strong growth at the start of 2012, could have significantly profited from the above mentioned flights which were advertised to begin from May 1.