Greek online travel booking company Airfasttickets has ceased operations, press reports said on Monday.
The company’s official websites and social media profiles are inoperative and the company’s staff has not been paid for three months.
Known for its highly prominent adverts, Airfasttickets opened its doors six years ago in Piraeus and managed to become one of the fastest growing companies in the global market for online bookings.
In 2013, the company had a net income of 30 million euros and EBITDA earnings of some 2 million euros. During the first half of 2014, Airfasttickets saw a 2,000 percent increase in sales.
However, in June 2014, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) suspended the company for not paying 14 million euros for tickets issued in the UK, 22 million euros for those issued in Germany and 9 million euros for those issued in Greece. At the time, AirFastTickets said it had no debts due to any supplier.
Moreover, a number of Greek online travel booking companies, including pamediakopes.gr, viva.gr, airtickets.gr and travelplanet24.com, have resorted to lawsuits against Airfastticktes citing unfair competition due to its sales practices (selling air tickets below wholesale).
Meanwhile, reports said that Airfastticktes CEO Nikolaos Koklonis is expected to appear in court over the next few days for debts of 50 million euros to a large airline company.
