4YOU Airlines (Warsaw Chopin) has suspended the sale of tickets on its website and is now offering all booked passengers refunds after the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office initiated investigations into the start-up's operations last week.
"Please be advised that all persons who purchased the product available via the www.4youairlines.com website and who received a booking confirmation are entitled to withdraw from the contract for the return of all contributed funds," the company said on its website.
The carrier's problems started in August when the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (Urząd Ochrony Konkurencji i Konsumentów - UOKiK) initiated an investigation into its sale of tickets for its proposed Rzeszow Jasionka and Lodz scheduled services set to launch in November.
Backed by Polish tour firm AlfaStar, 4YOU began operations as a charter carrier offering flights between Poland and Mediterranean destinations earlier this summer. As a virtual carrier, it operated leased A320-200s sourced from Ukraine's YanAir (YE, Kyiv Igor Sikorsky) using EuroLOT (Warsaw Chopin) flight numbers. However, following the end of the summer season, management decided to pursue its own Air Operators Certificate thereby allowing the carrier to offer scheduled flights. At this point in time, the decision was then taken to switch from an A320 fleet to a B737 fleet sourced from Lithuania's Grand Cru Airlines (Vilnius).
UOKIK argued that because 4YOU lacked adequate certification, including its own aircraft, Air Operators Certificate and Air Services Licence, that its sale of tickets to the public for services that were not yet operational was tantamount to fraud. UOKIK's consultations with the Polish civil aviation authority (Urząd Lotnictwa Cywilnego - ULC) also showed that the carrier was unlikely to secure any of the certificates before the stipulated date of departure. As a result, it filed a request for the local authorities to investigate the airline and its dealings.
