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Basel: Prishtinajet sells tickets for flights that the operating carriers know nothing about

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The German company Prishtinajet UG (limited liability) uses photos of Air Malta and Malta MedAir aircraft and flight numbers from Heston Airline to catch customers on the Internet. If you believe the provider's homepage, there are said to be many charter flights from Basel, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart to Pristina every week. However, these do not appear on the display boards at the airports mentioned.

There is a reason for this, because, for example, the airports of Basel and Pristina explained to Aviation.Direct on request that they have no business relationship with a company called Prishtinajet UG (limited liability). Their alleged flights are also not known.

An available "ticket" shows that the IATA two-letter code "HN" is used before the "flight numbers". The acronym stands for Heston Airlines. If you compare the alleged flight times given on the Prishtinajet homepage, it quickly becomes apparent that these Heston Airlines flights simply do not exist. The airline confirmed to Aviation.Direct that it has no business relationship with Prishtinajet UG (limited liability), the flight numbers do not exist and, in particular, that no charter contract has been concluded. The Vilnius-based airline is aware of the “problem” and is using legal means to prevent Prishtinajet from using the 2L code.

Air Malta and Malta MedAir do not fly for Prishtinajet

There were still photos from Air Malta and Malta MedAir, which were used to intensively attract customers in social media and advertisements. In particular, a “first flight” between Düsseldorf and Pristina is “documented” with photos of an Air Malta A320. However, according to the airline concerned, this never existed, but they come from a regular KM scheduled flight between Düsseldorf and Luqa (Malta), the airline says. You have no business relationship with Prishtinajet and do not fly for them.

Malta MedAir, whose aircraft are also advertised with, has also never flown for the German “UG (limited liability)” and also has no charter order. The planes of this Maltese airline are used elsewhere in ACMI. For example, one flies from Antalya on behalf of Corendon. The Maltese civil aviation authority also said that neither Air Malta nor Malta MedAir operate charter flights from Germany and/or Basel-Mulhouse to Pristina.

Smartlynx terminated the cooperation without notice

On LinkedIn, Prishtinajet even brings another airline into play. It is claimed that Smartlynx would operate the flights. However, the airline counters that you simply would not fly for this ticket seller. In fact, in 2020 it was announced that two Airbus A320s would be stationed in Kosovo and used for charter flights for Prishtinajet. After only 15 flights, however, it was over again due to alleged payment problems and Smartlynx terminated the contract without notice. At the time, it was even publicly pointed out that the cooperation had ended immediately and that the flights advertised by Prishtinajet would definitely not be carried out. The German "UG (limited liability"), which according to the company register has a share capital of only 1.000 euros and is managed by a man with Kosovo citizenship, has not considered it necessary to date the "connection" to Smartlynx from the Linkend-In- remove presence.

It is also not the first time that Prishtinajet has attracted attention due to questionable business practices. For example, 20Min.ch ran the headline on December 28, 2022: "Kosovo travel agency cheats compatriots at Christmas time". It is said that many “customers” only found out at Basel Airport that their supposed flights to Pristina did not exist at all. At that time, Prishtinajet was still communicating with the media and saying that sales agencies had made mistakes.

The German company, which is officially based in Munich but has a business address in Düsseldorf, which according to the commercial register is the private address of the managing director, no longer responds to inquiries. Prishtinajet UG (limited liability) was confronted with the allegations and statements by the alleged operating carrier, but preferred to remain silent.

"Tickets" will continue to be sold - primarily for cash

However, ticket sales for ultra-cheap Pristina flights have not been discontinued to date. Even on the day of the supposed "departure", "flight tickets" can be booked for 39 euros, but also for well over 200 euros. If you compare the flight times given on the homepage with the display boards at the airports, you will not find them. Simple reason: the airports don't know anything about it and the supposed "Air Malta/MaltaMedAir/Heston Airlines" flights simply don't exist.

Prishtinajet's very rudimentary homepage is obviously only intended to serve one purpose: to land "bookings" and especially payments, because pretty much all the other functions don't work at all and there are no hyperlinks on the texts. Affected people report that there are supposed to be error messages when trying to pay with credit cards and Paypal and that you should then switch to paying in cash in supermarkets using the “Barzahlen.de” tool and paying in cash or transferring money to a bank account. This is exactly what should obviously be calculated, because while there is buyer protection for card and/or PayPal payments if the service is not provided, this is simply not available for cash payments or bank transfers.

So-called “fake airlines” that offer their “services” in the direction of Kosovo occur again and again, according to the Basel public prosecutor. It is also perfidious that names are used that are confusingly similar to the travel agency "Air Prishtina", which has been established on the market for a long time. While "Air Prishtina" is a reputable provider that even owns 51 percent of the airline Chair Airlines, the dubious ones are only out for the money that can be "fetched" in VFR traffic and there are usually no flights.

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Comment

  • Ari, 20. July 2022 @ 14: 08


    Does anyone know if there is a legal way to get his money back?
    Thank you & LG

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