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Aegean Airlines
IATA
A3		 ICAO
AEE		 Callsign
AEGEAN
Founded 1987
Hubs Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport
Thessaloniki International Airport
Frequent flyer program Miles & Bonus
Miles & More
Member lounge Aegean Club Lounge
Makedonia
Demokritos
Alliance Star Alliance (May 2010) [1]
Fleet size 34 (+5 orders)
Destinations 38
Company slogan Greek: Θέλω να πετάξω τώρα!
English: I want to fly now!
Headquarters Kifisia, Greece
Key people Theodoros Vassilakis (Chairman & CEO)
Website www.aegeanair.com

Aegean Airlines S.A. (LSE: 0H0T) is the largest Greek airline, by fleet size and the total number of passengers carried. It operates scheduled and charter services from Athens and Thessaloniki to other major Greek destinations as well as to a number of European destinations. Its main base is Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens, with a secondary hub at Thessaloniki International Airport, "Macedonia". It has its head office in Kifisia, Athens Prefecture.[2]

In 2008, it carried 5,978,083 passengers[3] surpassing for the first time the rival Olympic Airlines, which carried 5,265,729 passengers.[4]

Contents

History

An engine of an Aegean Airlines Avro RJ100. (2009)

Aegean Airlines was founded as Aegean Aviation in 1987.[5] It was originally a VIP/business air operation specializing in executive and air ambulance services. On 17 February 1992, it became the first airline to be issued with a Greek independent air operator's licence.[5] After it was bought by Vasilakis Group in 1994, Aegean Aviation commenced VIP flights from Athens all over the world with wholly owned Learjet aircraft. The Aegean Airlines title was adopted with the start of scheduled passenger services at the end of May 1999.[5]

Its first commercial flights were from Athens to Heraklion, Crete and Thessaloniki, Macedonia, with 2 brand new wholly owned BAe 146/RJ100. Also in 1999 Aegean bought Air Greece.[5] After an agreement in March 2001 to merge Aegean and Cronus Airlines, it operated for a while as Aegean Cronus Airlines until full integration.[5][6] Since 2005, the airline has been in partnership with Lufthansa, offering participation to the Miles & More program, and its flights, except from its A3 code, also have the Lufthansa LH code.[5] In March 2006, Aegean Airlines also agreed with TAP Portugal in a co-operation agreement.[5] In December 2008, Aegean Airlines announced its co-operation with Brussels Airlines.[7]

In 2009, Aegean Airlines started codeshare agreements with; bmi, Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and TAP Portugal.

The airline is owned by Laskaridis Group (25.3%), Vassilakis Group (45.2%), B Konstantakopoulos (8.3%), D Ioannou (8.1%), G David (6.3%) and Piraeus Bank (5.9%) and has 2,300 employees (2009).[8]

On 26 May 2009, Aegean Airlines' membership application was approved by the Chief Executive Board of Star Alliance. Aegean is expected to join the alliance within 12 months.[9]

Merger with Olympic Air

Main article: Olympic Air

In February 2010, initial shareholder discussions took place to consider co-operation between Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air fueling rumors of a possible merger.[10] On 22 February 2010, Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines announced that they have agreed to a merger.[11][12][13] The newly mergeed airline will carry the Olympic brand name and logo, after a transition period in which both airline brands will be used in parallel.[11] The Aegean brand will cease to exist after the transition period. The merger agreement is still awaiting approval from the European Commission,[13] while it is expected that the merger will be finalized and the new combined airline will begin operation by October 2010.[14]

Aegean has been accepted into and is in the process of joining Star Alliance by June 2010.[11] The process will continue with the airlines working to guarantee a smooth transition of the merged carrier into the Star Alliance, despite the fact that Olympic Air was forging ties with SkyTeam pre-merger.[15] Star Alliance welcomed the proposed merger, releasing a statement stating "The integration teams from both sides will soon meet to assess the necessary steps, in order to guarantee a smooth transition of the merged Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air operations into the Star Alliance network".[16]

Destinations

An Aegean Airlines Boeing 737-400 departs Stuttgart Airport, Germany. (2008)
Main article: Aegean Airlines destinations

Codeshare agreements

Aegean Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:[17]

Airline Alliance
bmi Star Alliance
Brussels Airlines Star Alliance
Lufthansa Star Alliance
TAP Portugal Star Alliance

Fleet

An Aegean Airlines Boeing 737-300 taxiing at Düsseldorf Airport, Germany. (2004)
An Aegean Airlines Airbus A320 taxiing at Berlin Tegel Airport, Germany. (2009)

The Aegean Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (at 22 February 2010):[18][19]

Aegean Airlines Fleet
Aircraft In Fleet Orders Options Passengers Notes
Airbus A320-232 18 5 0 168 [20]
Airbus A321-232 4 0 0 195
ATR-72-500 2 0 0 68 Operated by Swiftair
BAE Avro RJ100 6 0 0 112
Boeing 737-300 1 0 0 136
Boeing 737-400 3 0 0 156
Total 34 5 0

As of 15 February 2010, the average age of the Aegean Airlines fleet is 4.7 years.[21]

Aircraft orders

In 2007, the airline ordered a combined total of 27 Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 aircraft to replace the older Boeing 737-300 and Boeing 737-400 aircraft in the fleet.[18]

Awards

  • Bronze Award: Airline of the Year - 2000/2001[22]
  • Gold Award: Airline of the Year - 2004/2005[22]
  • Silver Award: Airline of the Year - 2006/2007[22]
  • ERA's Palme d'Or award - 2007[22]
  • Gold Award: Airline of the year - 2008/2009[22]

Incidents and accidents

  • On 7 March 2010, Aegean Airlines Flight 511, an Airbus A320-232, registration SX-DVW,[23] had to return and make an emergency landing at Thessaloniki International Airport in Greece shortly after departure due to an apparent engine malfunction. The flight had 146 passengers onboard. A replacement aircraft arrived and continued the flight to Athens arriving 2.5 hours late.[24]

References

  1. ^ "ATW Daily News". Atwonline.com. 2009-05-27. http://atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=16722. Retrieved 2009-06-20. 
  2. ^ "Headquarters." Aegean Airlines. Retrieved on 22 February 2010.
  3. ^ "Aegean Airlines - Η Εταιρεία - Γραφείο Τύπου - Δελτία Τύπου". Aegeanair.com. 2009-01-27. http://www.aegeanair.com/news.aspx?newsItem=161. Retrieved 2009-06-20. 
  4. ^ "• Προβολή θέματος - Επιβατική κίνηση -last update: ΦΕΒΡΟΥΑΡΙΟΣ 2009". Airliners.gr. 2008-01-07. http://www.airliners.gr/community/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2677. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f g "Milestones". Aegean Airlines. en.aegeanair.com. http://en.aegeanair.com/Content.aspx?Page=37. Retrieved 2009-02-04. 
  6. ^ "Directory: World Airlines". Flight International: p. 45. 2007-03-27. 
  7. ^ Georgiopoulos, George (2008-12-02). "Greece's Aegean Air to grow routes despite downturn". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSL272257620081202. Retrieved 2008-12-05. 
  8. ^ "Aegean Airlines - Η Εταιρεία - Γραφείο Τύπου - Δελτία Τύπου". Aegeanair.com. http://el.aegeanair.com/news.aspx?newsItem=164. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
  9. ^ "Aegean Airlines Accepted As Future Star Alliance Member Carrier". Staralliance.com. http://www.staralliance.com/en/press/press_releases/2009/a3_announcement_final.html. Retrieved 2009-05-26. 
  10. ^ "Olympic Air and Aegean Air mulling cooperation". 2010-02-11. http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/Olympic-Air-and-Aegean-Air-mulling-cooperation-2010-02-11T094300Z. 
  11. ^ a b c Georgiopoulo, George (February 22, 2010). "UPDATE 3-Greek carriers Aegean, Olympic agree merger". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE61L0TX20100222. Retrieved 22 February 2010. 
  12. ^ Staff (February 22, 2010). "Aegean, Olympic Air Announce Merger". Capital.gr. http://english.capital.gr/News.asp?id=912804. Retrieved February 23, 2010. 
  13. ^ a b Staff (February 22, 2010). "Greek airlines agree merger: statement". AFG. http://news.ph.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3898828. Retrieved February 23, 2010. 
  14. ^ Staff (February 22, 2010). "Greek airlines merge". CTV. http://www.ctv.ca/generic/generated/static/business/article1477040.html. Retrieved February 23, 2010. 
  15. ^ Staff (February 23, 2010). "Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air to merge". http://www.starallianceemployees.com/news_details+M5165fab0a01.html?&cHash=feec54f40f022fee4430f854f4aa99b0. Retrieved February 23, 2010. 
  16. ^ Bruce, Michael (February 23, 2010). "Greek merger". travelweekly.com.au. pp. 3. http://www.travelweekly.com.au/dirplus/images/travelweekly/TravelTodayPDF/23_02_2010.pdf. Retrieved February 24, 2010. 
  17. ^ Aegean Airlines Codeshare Agreements
  18. ^ a b "Fleet". http://en.aegeanair.com/Content.aspx?Page=39. Retrieved 2009-04-13. 
  19. ^ http://www.ch-aviation.ch/aircraft.php?search=set&airline=A3&al_op=1 Aegean Airlines fleet at ch-aviation.ch. Retrieved 2009-11-27
  20. ^ "Aegean Airlines - Η Εταιρεία - Ο Στόλος μας". Aegeanair.com. http://el.aegeanair.com/Content.aspx?Page=39. Retrieved 2009-08-02. 
  21. ^ "Fleet age Aegean Airlines". Airfleets. http://www.airfleets.net/ageflotte/Aegean%20Airlines.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-05. 
  22. ^ a b c d e "Aboust Us: Awards". Aegean Airlines. www.aegeanair.com. http://www.aegeanair.com/Content.aspx?Page=44. Retrieved 2007-08-04. 
  23. ^ Picture of SX-DVW
  24. ^ Aegean Airlines Flight 511

External links

Airlines of Greece
Flag of Greece
Members of Star Alliance
Members of the Association of European Airlines







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