You can also find this blog post here in Albanian.
Meanwhile cancelled.ch monthly receive cases of cancellations affecting airlines which in fact do not exist. This is a well-known scam. The “airlines” in question have no aircraft and never plan to actually operate flights, which is why all flights are cancelled without exception.
However, this does not prevent them from continuing to sell tickets for fictitious flights. It is estimated that there are several hundred victims of fraud in Switzerland. The Federal Office of Police and numerous cantonal public prosecutors are now aware of the situation and have received numerous reports and complaints.
The self-proclaimed “airlines” are named, for example:
- Germany Airlines
- Germani Airways
- Aeroprishtina
- Adriatic Fly
- Prishtina Airlines
(Not to be confused with “Air Prishtina”, a reputable company whose boss Leyla Ibrahimi-Salahi has been the owner of Germania Flug AG since 2019).
The list is not exhaustive. New names of non-existent airlines keep reaching us. It seems that whenever one of these “airlines” is put out of business, a new one appears immediately. The owner of Germany Airlines and Germani Airways, for example, is now in custody.
Among the affected routes are almost exclusively those to Prishtina (or back), most victims are Kosovo Albanians according to our knowledge. cancelled.ch cannot obtain any compensation or refunds in such cases of fraud. Victims are advised to file criminal charges.
cancelled.ch strongly recommends booking flights exclusively on reputable platforms (e.g. momondo.ch) or directly on the websites of well-known airlines (e.g. flyedelweiss.com – now with direct flights to Kosovo).
If you are unsure about an airline, it is best to check here in advance whether it actually exists (foreign airlines with a Swiss operating licence).
Further research and reports on this topic can be found here:
- Watson Switzerland
- n-tv.de (Video)
- bild.de
- botapress.info (in Albanian)
Source Photo: Visitenkarte Foto erstellt von nuchylee – de.freepik.com