The collapse of the Slovakian budget carrier SkyEurope may just be the tip of the iceberg as smaller airlines find it difficult to stay afloat amongst one of the worst slumps ever recorded.

Nick Cunningham of Evolution Securities said that at the end of summer or in early autumn, it is likely that more airlines would shut down.

He went on to say that would be extremely difficult due to weak traffic and even weaker yields.

He said that if airlines are not going to be viable, there is no point continuing to run it and it should be shut down.

Last week, Bratislava-based SkyEurope said that a court-appointed trustee had decided that bankruptcy was the only way forward due to the lack of sufficient funding to finance ongoing operations.

The airline had shown signs of trouble for some months prior, not operating on the same scale as major players EasyJet or Ryanair, which have the financial capacity to weather the biggest downturn in travel since the 1930s.

Analysts say that SkyEurope would not be an isolated case and that other carriers were going to find it hard to reach winter.

SkyEurope was formed in 2002 as the market began to recover from the shock of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, but the airline only had limited funding and hoped to cash in on the boom in following years, like many of its rivals.