Globe Merchant Travel Blog

ATHENS — Greece’s national carrier Olympic Airlines which was bought by Greek and United Arab Emirates investment group Marfin announced Saturday that starting Tuesday most of its flights will be operated by its successor Olympic Air.

The new airline was originally set to start operations on Thursday “but for reasons related to adapting and transferring passengers to Olympic Air flights, we decided to make this succession on Tuesday, a day when traffic at Athens airport is not that heavy,” Olympic Airlines spokesman Michalis Miyakis told AFP.

Olympic Air will take over most of the 28 international flights and 26 domestic flights previously operated by Olympic Airlines, he added.

Any passengers holding tickets on Olympic Airlines after September 29 can travel on Olympic Air or with other carriers at no additional expense, the airline said in statement.

Earlier this month Olympic Air said it had signed a deal with US carrier Delta Airlines allowing code sharing on the Athens-New York route from October 1 in a bid to boost its global reach.

Olympic Air chief Antonis Simigdalas also said the airline would sign agreements with Air France-KLM, Cyprus Airways and Etihad Airways for flights to Canada, France and the Netherlands between now and March 2010.

Olympic Air has received investments totalling 1.1 billion dollars (746 million euros), employs 5,000 people, owns 32 planes and includes handling and engineering services.

Olympic Airlines will continue to operate flights to a few international destinations including Tel Aviv, Istanbul and Cairo and some Greek islands after a call for bids for these destinations proved unsuccessful in August.

A new Greek government to be formed after the general election next weekend is expected to relaunch bids for these remaining destinations, Olympic Airlines has said.

ATHENS, Sept 22 (Reuters) – Aegean Airlines, Greece’s largest carrier by passengers, on Tuesday rejected concerns from rival Olympic Air that an expansion of Aegean’s route network to Istanbul was handled incorrectly by the domestic aviation authority.

Olympic Air, created after the privatisation of Greece’s loss-making Olympic Airlines, is set to start flying Oct. 1.
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Last week, Olympic Air’s new owner, Marfin Investment Group (MIG), questioned Aegean’s designation by Greece’s civil aviation authority (YPA) to service the Athens-Istanbul route.

However, Aegean Airlines Vice Chairman Eftyhios Vassilakis told reporters on Tuesday that there was ‘no secret, no under the table deal’.

He said Aegean had openly pursued permissioning for the route to Istanbul for eight years and that YPA, which had the discretion to designate a second carrier apart from Olympic since 1996, did so in 2004.

Since then Aegean had been trying to get a slot at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport, finally achieving the goal in May this year. After it launched flights on Sept. 9 this year, the lowest one-way fare has dropped to 65 euros from 136 euros.

Vassilakis also told reporters the government’s tender of state-subsidised routes should have been frozen and not cancelled because of the Oct. 4 national election.

The tender by YPA encompasses a total of 24 commercially unviable routes, most to remote islands, guaranteeing state subsidies for the servicing carriers.

‘It would have been better to freeze the process and have the new government assess the submitted offers,’ Vassilakis said.

The cancellation of the tender leaves a void, practically meaning that the servicing will continue to be done by Olympic until the end of November, at least.

Aegean has carried out test flights and submitted offers to service 17 mainly island destinations with AVRO RJ 100 112-seat jets and ATR 72 88-seat planes.

The routes include the islands of Kalymnos, Ikaria, Astypalaia, Skiathos, Skyros, Samos, Chios, Lesvos, Karpathos and Kythera, providing flights from Athens and Thessaloniki.

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; editing by Simon Jessop) Keywords: AEGEANAIR COMPETITION/ ATTN EDITOR

(george.georgiopoulos@reuters.com; +30210 3311813; Reuters Messaging:george.georgiopoulos.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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ATHENS, Aug 26 (Reuters) – Greek carrier Aegean Airlines (AGNr.AT) said on Wednesday it took part in the Greek government’s tender of state-subsidised routes, seeking to service 17 mainly island destinations.

Aegean, which competes with recently privatised Olympic Air, said it offered to service the routes with AVRO RJ 100 112-seat jets and ATR 72 88-seat planes.

It offered to service routes including the islands of Kalymnos, Ikaria, Astypalaia, Skiathos, Skyros, Samos, Chios, Lesvos, Karpathos and Kythera, providing flights from Athens and Thessaloniki.

The tender by Greece’s civil aviation authority encompasses a total of 24 routes that are commercially unviable, guaranteeing state subsidies for the servicing carriers. The deadline for offers expires on Wednesday. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos, editing by Will Waterman)