Some info HERE and HERE

jj1978,

Alexandair use MD-82's, this is what they look like. I've never flown with them personally but the flights seem to be quite punctual when I've seen them.

Darren

Saw one of them on the ground being maintained at Heraklion airport yesterday morning.

jj

You might find THIS of interest

See http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=41418

Hi JJ.

My in-laws used Alexandair 2 weeks ago going to and fro from Kos.
They both told us that they had a torrid time and were going to place a post on the forum here in the next few days.

I shall highlight this topic with them and get the in-laws to post here within a few days.

Cheers Ken.

their planes look scarily similar to that of the helios airways (are they connected of just use the symbol)

their planes look scarily similar to that of the helios airways (are they connected of just use the symbol)

The tail logo is very similar. The Helios was a Boeing 737-300 though, Alexandair use MD-82's which are a totally different design.

Darren

Hi jj
My family have just returned from Kos after a week's A1,and flew by Alexandair. Never again! It started with a delay at Gatwick, where the flight time was changed from 13.20 to 21.00. The flight out went to Rhodes! were we had to refuel, sitting on the plane strapped in to our seats. The in flight refreshments, dry rice and spicy meatballs, roll with no butter/marge and one drink. At Rhodes the case's went missing as they were labled for Rhodes and not Kos! so another delay to find the cases.We arrived in kos at 04.00 the next day thus losing a day's holiday.
The hotel side of the A1 was good, so we enjoyed the next 6 days. Then came the return flight! The flight was called an hour early this meant the pickup was at 05.45. Kos airport was its usual chaos,with the normal Greek oficialdom and jobs worth people.The flight was listed as Rhodes Non Stop!, no mention of Gatwick!Some of us who were on the outbound flight started to joke about where we might end up,but if you joke ,expect it to come true! The flight went to Rhodes, where we refueled,waiting on the plane for the remaining passengers to come on board,but no! The checkin desk was not open in the airport! So a further delay.
We then finally took off for Gatwick.hurray we all said. The in flight meal was probably leftover from the outbound flight and so remained as it was served!
The flight was nice as it was daylight, you could see for miles but this is where it changed. As we approached Gatwick the pilot anounced that the runway was closed and we would have to divert to Luton and wait for a while in order to clear the runway. As we flew over Gatwick we could see there were planes taking off and landing below us, the same with Heathrow as we passed over on route to Luton.
After landing the pilot said we would be here for 10 to15 minutes and were to sit in our seats and wait. Its funny how time fly's when you are enjoying your self. The next anouncement was that we would refuel? With that the fuel truck came alongside and, nothing! No fuel went into the tanks. We waited......... and waited......., after about an hour and a half the fuel tanker man came on board and asked the pilot if he had any money on him to pay for the fuel! This i heard myself. The pilot then went of into the distance. Another hour went by.......still we were told to sit down strapped into our seat. You could not use the toilets as there was no water on the plane to flush them! No drinks were to be had and no food was left ( not that it was worth eating anyway ). During this time i managed to look at the flight deck, and the planes fuel gauges 25lbs in the center tank,950lbs in the starboard and 1350lbs in the port tank.
The passengers were getting restless and so we asked to get off, as did many others. We were told that if we got off they would call security,we said fine, we will call the t.v. and newspapers! A Mexican standoff.
The pilot appears, he has money in his hand, this means fuel! He anounces only a further 10 minutes delay! This was only to refuel, you have to wait for a slot ot get into Gatwick. After 3 hours we land in Gatwick, hurray we all say.
As we get off the plane i noted the fuel readings again, these were 25 in the center 1150 starboard and 1850 port. This meant they had bought only 1000 lbs of fuel!
If ever there was a company that were flying on a shoestring its Alexandair.With one plane and no budget look out. This would be a good case for the CAA to look at their comptance!
Good luck to anyone who flies with them i will NEVER.

Since 20 August 2005, the aircraft is grounded, from Greek aviation authorities, for severe technical problems. All flights postponed. Unknown if and when they will be fixed. All Greek tv stations report the aircraft as "a disaster waiting to happen", following the disaster of Helios airlines

Not a moment too soon!! Would be grateful of any further information, as I am attempting to ensure that British Holidaymakers are never again subjected to the sort of stress levels, that we and others experienced on our holiday with Sunstar Leisure using Alexandair from Kos to Manchester this last week.
Thanking you in anticipation.

Transferred from a separate topic:

emmahannaway
New User...
Joined: 21 Aug 2005
Posts: 1
HTPoints
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2005 7:43 pm Post subject: alexandair

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hi all
just to let people know how "swear" alexanair actually are i had the worst flight i heve ever had. got to gatwick at the check in desk at 7 and was told that our flight was delayed due to technical problems with the plane. After being put up in hotels for two days and not been told any thing at all, finally got a fax through saying that the airline had a major problem with the engine and it had to be fixed, this was on the thursday and my flight was on the friday the 12th of august so basically alexandair knew this before all the passengers got to the airport to check in and noone had been informed. eventually we was told that the flight was taking off on sunday the 14th at 7pm this still didnt happen as we took off 12.30 am monday, if this wasnt enough we got on the plane and because the plane had less passengers on it we was then all told to move to the back of the plane to balance the weight of the plane out for take off. eventually got to crete and had 4 1/2 days out ther. flight on friday the 19th at 7pm got to the airport checked in was about to bourd and the desk was then closed didnt hear anything for two hours, was then told the flight wasnt going to be taking off due to the cival aviation authorities, they said the flight was unsafe and also in a lot of debt and so they grounded it. We was then going to be put up in a hotel for 2 nights all got our luggage back again by this time i was so fed up i went to the flight desk and got a flight home by fisrt choice. i have never been so happy to be home got back yesterday morning. People me and my partner met out there are still out there now and are due to be home monday but i cant see that happening. i would never ever recommened this airline ever again!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Sorry to put a bummer on things but I would never ever fly with Alexandair again, they are the cheapest airline in the history of mankind and they should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. The staff are extremely rude, the plane is like something out of the arc, the food, well I really cannot think of an explanation other than dont eat it. We have an ongoing complaint regarding our holiday and the absolute abomination of an airline called ALEXANDAIR. Just as an added note Olympic holidays also use Helios airlines,..............!!!!!!!!!

French news reports today that 160-odd passengers refused to board the Alexandair MD82 awaiting them at Heraklion airport ....................

And I wonder why that is ..............................!!!!!

isn't this the airline that passengers refused to fly on recently when they disbcovered an oil leak in the cabin and lots of missing lifejackets from underneath the seats ??

That's the one. How do they manage to get in business, I really don't know. They are an absolute disgrace and should not be allowed to carry on running their business. I could go on all day about this poxy airline. All as I would say to anybody is, DO NOT FLY WITH ALEXANDAIR!!!!!!

- except it wasn't funny at the time....(Sorry about the length, please read it though).

We went to the Mia Hara apartments in Sissi, Crete - booked through Complete Travel Solutions. Fanastic holiday while we were there but it was the travel courtesy of Alexandair that was a big joke...

Ou outbound flight from Gatwick on Friday 5 August 2005 as delayed 2 hours.

We went by taxi to the apartments in Sissi - transfers weren't included - as this was the only way to get there at 5am, the taxi ripped us off - we paid 55 Euros. He did drive like a madman, never below 120kmph, even on the bends and tiny roads) The staff at Complete Travel Solutions told us 'it will be about £15'...).

When we got to the apartments no one was there to meet us, it was dead quiet, the reception locked. We sat by the pool for about 1 hour. The only people we saw were 1 or 2 drunk holidaymakers staggering out of taxis fro Malia to go back to their rooms. I was just about to go to sleep on a sun lounger when the owner came out of his apartment, apologised and sent us to our apartment.

After 7 great relaxing days, we got back to Heraklion airport at about 2.30pm on Friday 12th August, ready to catch our flight AXN 163 leaving for Gatwick at 18:50 on Friday.

At about 4pm Friday, the flight dissappears from the departures board - no announcements/details of where to check in, or anything. No reps or staff there from Sunstar/Alexandair/Indigo Holidays, and the Alexandair office was closed and shuttered.

At about 11.30pm Friday, we were taken to the Hotel Astoreon by a taxi driver, he told us that there would be no Alexandair flights until at least Saturday morning.

At the hotel there were a load of passengers for the AXN 161 Manchester flight - they'd been there since early Friday morning.

Anyway, by Sunday, as we hadn't heard anything from anyone about what was going on (apart from us having to use our mobiles to phone Complete Travel Solutions in the UK - and they didn't know what was happening either) we all went back to Heraklion airport. We'd tried to go to the British Embassy but that was closed until Tuesday...

The clowns from Alexandair turned up at their office at about 11am Sunday - first we'd seen or heard of them.

Their 1 and only plane (as far as I heard!) had been mended after having to do an emergency landing in Italy because of technical difficulties, and was back at Heraklion and due to fly back to Manchester at 5.10pm Sunday 14th August. The Alexandair woman (called Jenny, I think) said the plane would fly to Manchester, then back to Heraklion, then pick us up to fly out at 3.45am Monday 15th August.

We weren't having that, and so managed to get on the AXN 161 Manchester flight at 5.10pm (up to that point we'd been delayed 46 hours!!!).

4 of us boarded late, when all the Manchester passengers had boarded. There were still about 40 free seats on the plane as well.

The Alexandair plane was falling apart - black gaffer tape holding up tables to the back of seats... you could tell the plane was ancient, it had an outside toilet ..not really, but anyway...

The stewardesses looked like they'd not slept in days and were acting pretty worried, and the pilot sounded nervous when he was announcing when we'd take off etc. At least we got free drinks. People were really worried about being on this place, some were crying!

The food just made me laugh - cold chicken nuggets (certainly not Jamie Oliver approved!!!) and cold rice and peas, a hard bread roll that you could've used as a weapon, and some orange drink called 'PEA'.... I gave that a miss, just in case it was what it said on the box.

The pilot suddenly announced that the flight was going to land at Manchester, then go onto Gatwick, before going back to Heraklion, great for us, but not for our luggage...

When we landed at Manchester, the stewardess told us to knock on the window when we saw our luggage being off-loaded by the baggage handlers, so they could throw it back on (is this standard practice?). It wasn't there....

As soon as we were back at Gatwick, we reported our baggage as missing.

I got my back bag yesterday (23rd August), that's 9 days after we landed. Apparently it'd been to Brussels, must've been nice for it....

I'm trying to get a refund for the flight off Alexandair, as according to EU Passenger Rights, if you're delayed for more than 5 hours, the airline has to do this. Does anyone know our legal rights with this situation, and how likely we are to get this refund?

Just to add, neither I or my girlfriend had holiday insurance, we thought we wouldn't bother with it this time....

Next time I look for a holiday I'll make sure the tour operators don't use Alexandair before I book it.

Wish I could give you some advice MikeN, we are fighting with the holiday company at the moment with regards to getting compensation. My first thought would be to go to your holiday company as that is who you booked with and that is who your contract was with. Hope you get manage to get some joy, keep us posted.