SKY express

If you stand at the fence in the Greek island summer, besides leisure airlines from all over Europe you keep seeing the same turboprops and Airbus jets with the “SKY express” titles. The airline from Heraklion is something like the second Greek force alongside Aegean Airlines: smaller, younger and strongly focused on the islands – and now with flights all the way to Germany. This page shows you how SKY express is set up, which aircraft you can expect and how to assign the airline cleanly.

SKY express at a glance

SKY express is a Greek airline headquartered in Heraklion on Crete. It was founded in 2005 and began operations in July of the same year. Behind the founding were two former executives of the then state-owned Olympic Airlines – people who knew Greek island traffic inside out. You can find more about the history of the old state airline on the page about Olympic Airways.

In its first years, SKY express was a small regional airline with turboprops such as the BAe Jetstream, connecting mainly Crete with the islands of the Aegean. The big leap came in 2020: in October 2020, the airline placed a firm order for four Airbus A320neos, becoming an Airbus customer for the first time. Since then, the fleet has grown quickly, and with it the network.

The numbers show how big this change was. According to published figures, SKY express carried around one million passengers for the first time in 2018; in 2024 it was just under 4.8 million. Today the airline describes itself as the fastest-growing airline in Greece and, by its own account, serves 33 Greek airports daily. The bases are in Athens, Heraklion and Thessaloniki.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code GQ: appears in the flight number, on the departure board and on the ticket.
• ICAO code SEH: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on most flight trackers.
• Callsign AIR CRETE: this is how the crew checks in on the radio.

The callsign is a nice detail for anyone standing at the spot with a scanner or live stream. It doesn’t match the brand name but points to the airline’s Cretan origins. So if you hear “AIR CRETE” on the frequency, you can expect a SKY express flight – whether ATR or Airbus.

The fleet: ATRs for the islands, Airbus neos for the main routes

SKY express flies two very different aircraft families – and that’s exactly what makes the airline exciting for spotters. According to the fleet overview on the SKY express website, the fleet looks like this in 2026:

Type	Number (per SKY express)	Seats	Use	Spotter note
Airbus A321neo	2	230	Busy routes, Europe	The airline’s largest aircraft, in service since 2023
Airbus A320neo	around 12	174 to 186	Athens, Thessaloniki, Europe	Backbone of the jet fleet, large neo engines
Airbus A320ceo	1	–	Supplement	One-off from the first A320 generation
ATR 72-600	11	72	Island and domestic services	Young turboprops, long cabin
ATR 42-500	4	48	Small island airports	Shorter, older ATR generation

The figures on the airline’s pages differ slightly – depending on the page, there are 10 or 12 A320neos and 28 to 30 aircraft in total. In October 2025, SKY express reported taking delivery of its 15th Airbus and a total fleet of 29 aircraft. So expect just under 30 aircraft and treat individual numbers as a snapshot.

The Airbus A320neo is the workhorse of jet operations. SKY express uses it in several configurations from 174 to 186 seats. The airline took delivery of its first A321neo in April 2023, with the second following in June 2023. The first A321neo was christened in December 2023 at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus. The manufacturer of the jets is Airbus; for the neo family, Airbus offers engines from CFM International (LEAP-1A) or Pratt & Whitney.

On the turboprop side, SKY express relies on aircraft from ATR. The ATR 72-600 is the newer and larger variant. The ATR 42-500 belongs to the predecessor generation of the ATR 42-600 and, with 48 seats, is the smallest aircraft in the fleet. It is precisely these small turboprops that make it possible to connect islands with short runways all year round.

ATR 42 or ATR 72? How to sort the turboprops

On approach, both ATR types look the same at first glance: high wing, two turboprop engines, T-tail. A few features still let you tell them apart reliably.

You can find more features, including how to tell them from the Dash 8, in the guide Telling turboprops apart. With the jets, it’s worth looking at the engines: you recognize the A320ceo by its smaller engines, the neos by their much larger nacelles. How that works in detail is shown in Telling the A320neo and ceo apart.

How to recognize SKY express

The most important feature is the “SKY express” titles on the fuselage. The brand consistently writes “SKY” in capital letters – that helps tell the airline apart from other “Sky” names. Don’t rely on a single detail of the paint scheme, though: in a mixed fleet of turboprops and jets, individual aircraft can differ in detail.

For a reliable assignment, two things count above all: the Greek registration with SX- and the ICAO code SEH on the tracker. Because Aegean, Aegean’s subsidiary Olympic Air and smaller companies such as Ellinair also fly with SX- registrations in Greece, the prefix alone isn’t enough.

Network and partners

The heart of the network is in Greece. SKY express connects Athens with numerous islands and regional airports, plus routes from Heraklion and Thessaloniki. By its own account, the airline flies daily from 33 Greek airports. For the small islands, this is often one of the few year-round links to the mainland – which becomes especially clear in winter, when the leisure airlines are gone.

Internationally, the network reaches around 20 countries, including Cyprus, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom. For spotters in Germany, this development is of particular interest:

Route	Start per SKY express
Athens – Munich	October 2022
Athens – Frankfurt	announced 2023
Athens – Düsseldorf	announced 2023
Athens – Berlin	October 2025
Thessaloniki – Düsseldorf	November 2025
Athens – Hamburg	December 2025 (fifth German destination)

SKY express is not an alliance member. Instead, the airline relies on individual agreements: since July 2025 there have been codeshare flights with Etihad Airways, an interline agreement with Emirates was added as early as 2022, and a partnership with ITA Airways in 2024. In May 2025, SKY express joined IATA.

Spotting SKY express: Greece and Germany

You’ll see the most SKY express in Greece, of course. At Athens Airport, ATRs and Airbuses mix with the traffic of Aegean and international airlines. At Heraklion Airport, the airline’s home airport, SKY express is present all year round. At Rhodes, Kos and in Thessaloniki, too, GQ flights are part of everyday life.

The island airports with spectacular approaches are especially appealing. At the runway end in Skiathos or at Kanoni at Corfu Airport, aircraft pass very close overhead – leisure airlines dominate there in summer, but Greek domestic flights are part of the mix. The guide Plane spotting in Greece gives an overview of the options in the country.

In Germany, SKY express is a rare visitor and therefore a nice sighting. The flights to Munich, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Berlin and Hamburg are generally operated with Airbus jets and, depending on the route, run only on some days of the week. At Munich Airport, for example, it’s worth checking the daily schedule before you head to the visitors’ hill. Also pay attention to the runway direction in use – it decides on which side of the airport you’ll best catch the Greek aircraft.

Common mix-ups

• Confusing SKY express with Sky Airline – the Chilean Sky Airline is a completely different company; only the name is similar.
• Taking SKY express for an Aegean subsidiary – that’s Olympic Air, not SKY express. The two airlines are competitors.
• Taking every Greek ATR for SKY express – Olympic Air also flies ATRs; the titles decide.
• Logging the A320ceo as a neo – SKY express has a single first-generation A320, recognizable by its smaller engines.
• Assigning the callsign wrongly – “AIR CRETE” on the radio belongs to SKY express, not to a separate airline called Air Crete.
• Equating a codeshare flight number with the operating airline – on Etihad codeshares, the ICAO code SEH shows that SKY express is flying.

Conclusion

SKY express is the airline that keeps Greek island traffic running in the background – while at the same time growing toward Europe with young Airbus jets. For spotters, the mix of ATR 42, ATR 72, A320neo, A321neo and a single A320ceo is a small but varied collecting challenge. If you note the titles, SX- registration and ICAO code SEH, you’ll assign every sighting reliably – whether on Crete or at a German airport.