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, Athens, with a secondary hub at Thessaloniki International Airport, "Macedonia".
In 2008, it carried 5,978,083 passengers[2] surpassing for the first time the rival Olympic Airlines, which carried 5,265,729 passengers.[3]
[edit] History
Aegean Airlines was founded as Aegean Aviation in 1987.[4] 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.[4] 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.[4]
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.[4] After an agreement in March 2001 to merge Aegean and Cronus Airlines, it operated for a while as Aegean Cronus Airlines until full integration.[4][5] 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.[4] In March 2006, Aegean Airlines also agreed with TAP Portugal in a co-operation agreement.[4] In December 2008, Aegean Airlines announced its co-operation with Brussels Airlines.[6] In 2009 Aegean airlines has started codeshare agrrements with BMI airways, Tap Portugal, and air Baltic.
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).[7]
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.[8]
[edit] Destinations
Boeing 737-300 in Düsseldorf (Germany)
The Aegean Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of 27 November 2009[9][10]):
As of 8 July 2009, the average age of the Aegean Airlines fleet is 4.8 years.[18]
[edit] 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.[9] After all deliveries in 2009, Aegean Airlines will have the youngest fleet of aircraft flying within Greece, and one of the youngest airline fleets in Europe.[9]
[edit] Awards
- Bronze Award: Airline of the Year - 2000/2001[19]
- Gold Award: Airline of the Year - 2004/2005[19]
- Silver Award: Airline of the Year - 2006/2007[19]
- ERA's Palme d'Or award - 2007[19]
- Gold Award: Airline of the year - 2008/2009[19]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Members of the International Air Transport Association | | | | | | Asia-Pacific regional office | | | | | | | China and North Asia regional office | | | | | | | | | | Latin America and the Caribbean regional office | | | | | | | Middle East and North Africa regional office | | | | | | | North America regional office | | | | | | | Russia and the CIS regional office | | | | | |
