Bulkan Business News
Michael Roberts – 04.03.2011
In a recent release, Olympic Air’s new Board of Directors, decided to reshape the company’s planning, focusing on strategic development. The target for Olympic Air is to become a leader in Southeast Europe by exploiting the competitive advantage of its high quality services.
EU’s Competition Commission recent decision not to approve the merger with Aegean Airlines disrupted the plans of creating a single major Greek airline with pan-European range. And now the difficult conditions and medium term prospects of the market, are leading the company to revise its flight schedule, in order to match the new planning.
In this context the following routes will be added in the domestic flight plan: Athens – Corfu, Athens – Alexandroupolis, Thessaloniki – Heraklion, Thessaloniki – Chania, Thessaloniki – Mytilene and Thessaloniki – Rhodes. Furthermore, the international network is adjusted as to maintain or expand flights to Amsterdam, Belgrade, Bucharest, Cairo, Istanbul, Larnaca, Sofia and Tirana, while canceling routes to Vienna, Brussels, London and Paris.
At the same time all existing agreements on code share flights with Delta Airlines for flights to U.S. and Etihad Airlines, to Australia and South Africa, will continue. Further international agreements will be evaluated in order to enhance services to our passengers.
Finally, Olympic Air together with Aegean Airlines will appeal against the decision of the European Competition Commission which had not approved the merger of the two airlines.
Olympic Air’s President, Mr. John Karakadas made the following statement:
“After 15 months of operations Olympic Air has presented obvious results to all Greek citizens. In our effort to revive our historical and national carrier, we plot a new course today in order to shield the sustainability of our initial commitments. Our new strategy obviously takes into consideration both the decision of the Competition Commission and the ongoing turmoil in the markets. However, our central and non-negotiable target remains to provide the highest quality services to our passengers, while the reorganization of our network will allow us to address more effectively the challenges that surround us and to maintain the leadership profile of Olympic Air in our region. ” Source; Olympic Air