Is Olympic A good Airline to Fly?
As time goes on, less and less airlines are “good airlines” to fly. They are all cutting back on costs as fuel skyrockets. Add to that the new security taxes and we’re talking about higher fares and lower service!
Olympic is no different…well sort of…. the have a different problem…. but probably the same results. The are being heavily subsidized by the Greek Government which is illegal under European Community law. Olympic Airlines has been ordered to return over 560 million euro to the Greek Government, but it probably won’t happen. As you can imagine, the other airlines and countries who play by the rules are not happy about this.
Greece is a hot destination and Olympic moves a lot of passengers to and from Greece. Their fares are sort of high and they get a government subsidy so it sounds like they should offer the best service…. unfortunately, there’s more to it than that…. Olympic has traditionally had a work force large enough to maintain an airline 3-4 times it size as well as government protection of the workforce(that translates to workers who can’t be fired no matter what they do!…get it?). A couple of years ago, a bunch were fired to make the airline more profitable so they could sell it(who would want to buy an airline that’s losing money and deep in debt), but the attitude is still the same(I’m not sure how they decided to pink slip people, but my guess is that it had nothing to do with who was the best worker).
Olympic has the advantage of being one of only two airlines(Delta is the other) that have nonstop flights from the US to Athens. That in itself is an advantage(to the airline and to you the passenger). I’ve flown them a few times in the last five years and I don’t have any major complaints. Their work slowdown strike in November of 2004 was a bit of an inconvenience(I didn’t enjoy being 2 hours late departing Athens) and some of the flight attendents are not the friendliest people I’ve ever met….(but some are), but when weighed against having an extra connection in a European city, I think I would take Olympic and the nonstop flight any time!
visit GreeceFlights.com and AGreatFare.com for more info