SkyEurope, the Slovak-based low cost airline, has gone bust.

The airline, which had flights operating to 20 European cities including London Luton airport, has filed for bankruptcy and frozen all flights and operations.

The company has issued a statement on its website informing customers who purchased tickets on their credit cards to contact their issuing bank to obtain a refund.

However, tickets bought by other means may not be refunded.

Travellers already at their destinations have been warned that they will need to buy an alternative return flight from another airline at their own expense.

SkyEurope has claimed that it had a “lack of sufficient interim funding to finance ongoing operations”.

SkyEurope was set up in 2001 but has never made a profit to date.

Hotels and car rentals booked via the airline are still be valid, as they are provided by third parties.

The Austrian group FOCUS equity failed to save SkyEurope from bankruptcy protection, which it entered in June, despite reportedly investing 16.5 million euros in July in an attempt to salvage the airline.

SkyEurope join an ever-growing list of airlines that have gone under in the past year including Sterling Airlines, which went bust in October 2008, and Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, which went into liquidation in April 2008.