GREECE: Aegean Airlines Now Flying To Porto And Turin

Aegean Airlines introduced two European airports to its Athens (ATH) network this week, namely Porto (OPO) and Turin (TRN).

The Star Alliance member will offer a seasonal service on both routes for S18.

The first destination added was the Portuguese city, with it being initiated on 6 June.

Flights on the 2,799-kilometre sector to Porto will be flown on the airline’s A320s twice-weekly on Wednesdays and Sundays.

Services on the 1,572-kilometre city pair with Turin, which launched two days later, will also see a twice-weekly rotation on Wednesdays and Fridays, with the route being operated on a mixture of Aegean’s Airbus short-haul family aircraft.

Neither service will face direct competition.

Last year the airline flew 13.2 million passengers, up 6.5% versus the 12.5 million that flew with the carrier in 2016.

Not only did passenger traffic grow, but the Aegean Airlines Group saw its passenger yield per kilometre increase from €0.081 in 2016 to €0.082 in 2017 according to its annual financial report.

Aegean Airlines S.A. Aeroporía Aigaíou Anónimi Etairía is the largest Greek airline by total number of passengers carried, by number of destinations served and by fleet size.

A Star Alliance member since June 2010, it operates scheduled and charter services from Athens and Thessaloniki to other major Greek destinations as well as to a number of European and Middle Eastern destinations.

Its main hubs are Athens International Airport in Athens, Thessaloniki International Airport in Thessaloniki and Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus.

It also uses other Greek airports as bases, some of which are seasonal. It has its head office in Kifisia, a suburb of Athens.

Although the airline is the largest airline in Greece, it is not a flag carrier.

On 21 October 2012, Aegean Airlines announced that it had struck a deal to acquire Olympic Air, and the buyout was approved by the European Commission a year later, on 9 October 2013.

Both carriers continue to operate under separate brands. In addition, Aegean Airlines participated in the final stages of the tender for the privatization of Cyprus Airways, the national carrier of Cyprus.

Following the bankruptcy of Cyprus Airways, Aegean Airways established a hub at Larnaca Airport.

Thus initiating scheduled flights to and from the island to various destinations and filling the service gap created by the services termination of Cyprus Airways.

During summer season, Aegean Airlines operates a number of A320s, performing charter services in association with major tourist operators.

The charter flights connect popular holiday destinations in Greece to Italy, France, United Kingdom, Poland, Israel, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Ukraine and other countries.

In recent years, they have also operated charter flights for football fixtures, for example, when the Greek national football team is playing abroad.

Aegean's first commercial flights were in May 1999 from Athens to Heraklion, Crete and Thessaloniki with 2 brand-new wholly owned British Aerospace Avro RJ100.

In December 1999 Aegean also acquired Air Greece. After an agreement in March 2001 to merge Aegean and Cronus Airlines, the company operated for a while as Aegean Cronus Airlines until full integration.

Since 2005, the airline has been in partnership with Lufthansa, offering participation in the Miles & More programme, and its flights, in addition to its A3 code also have the Lufthansa LH code.

In March 2006, Aegean Airlines also entered into a co-operation agreement with TAP Air Portugal.

In December 2008, Aegean Airlines announced its co-operation with Brussels Airlines.

Aegean Airlines codeshares with the following airlines:

- Air Canada

- Air Serbia

- airBaltic

- Brussels Airlines

- Bulgaria Air

- EgyptAir

- Ethiopian Airlines

- Etihad Airways

- Gulf Air

- Hainan Airlines

- LOT Polish Airlines

- Lufthansa

- Olympic Air

- S7 Airlines

- Scandinavian Airlines

- Singapore Airlines

- Swiss International Air Lines

- TAP Air Portugal

- TAROM

- Turkish Airlines

Additionally, Aegean Airlines has a commercial agreement with Trenitalia.


Tourism Observer

GREECE: Arrivals Traffic Increases At Greek Airports

Tourist arrivals increased in February at major Greek airports by 24.9 percent and road arrivals rose in the same month by 17.1 percent compared to the same month in 2016.

This reinforces estimates of a good year ahead for Greek tourism.

Greece’s airports have reported a 20.6 percent rise in incoming traffic since the start of the year.

This increased by 33 percent at Athens International Airport and by 8.2 percent at the country’s regional airports.

At the same time, consumer confidence at major source markets is also showing signs of improvement with the exception of Sweden.

Meanwhile, the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) and the country’s employers’ bodies including the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) signed a two-year national general labor agreement on Wednesday, which foresees a 1.5 percent pay rise for 2018 and 2019.

The agreement was welcomed by SETE as it creates favorable working conditions and regulates relations in the sector.

At the same time, Greece’s Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) issued a directive for short-term Airbnb-style rentals clarifying that they are exempt from VAT provided they do not offer services on the side besides bed linen and utilities.

Meanwhile, positive developments on the Greek tourism front include Ikos Resorts’ expansion to Spain through its newly-setup entity Ikos International SCA, headquartered in Luxembourg.

This, and the launch of direct flights from Thessaloniki to Dubai by Qatar Airways.

SETE Intelligence also recently released a report on the incoming tourism prospects in Greece for 2018.

The report showed that scheduled airline seats at regional airports were already showing a 22 percent increase for the 2018 summer season, compared to the same period last year.

Indicatively, scheduled airline seats from Germany are up by 45 percent.

On the downside, despite the growing number of arrivals in January, the Bank of Greece found that tourism revenue from receipts dropped by 3 percent.

SETE Intelligence is the research department of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE).


Tourism Observer

GREECE: Passenger Traffic at Athens International Airport Shoots Up By 8.1%In Jan-Aug

Athens airport serviced 14.5 million passengers in the first eight months of 2017, up 8.1 percent year-on-year, according to data released recently by Athens International Airport (AIA).

According to AIA, the rise is attributed to the sharp increase of international passenger traffic by 11.8 percent, compared to the January-August 2016 period.

Meanwhile, passenger traffic from the domestic market rose by only by 1.6 percent (4.9 million passengers) during the first eight months of the year.

In August alone, the airport’s passenger traffic reached 2.54 million and presented a robust rise of 7.5 percent.

This outcome was formulated by the growth of both domestic and international markets that enjoyed an increase of 3.2 percent (823,659 passengers) and 9.8 percent (1.7 million passengers) respectively, Athens International Airport - AIA said.

So far, the strongest month in terms of passenger traffic for AIA, during the first eight months of the year, is April (Easter season), during which 11.4 percent more passengers (1.6 million) traveled.

The number of takeoffs and landings at Athens airport edged up to 132,818 in January-August 2017 from 129,698 in the prior-year period (a 2.4 percent increase).



Tourism Observer

UKRAINE: Meals Inflight On Ukraine International Airlines

On a recent trip to Greece I decided to fly the long way and overnight in Kiev in order to test out the Ukraine International pre order meals for economy class passengers. The airline doesn’t offer free meals in economy class on most European flights, you can make purchases from the inflight menu onboard or pre order a meal during the flight booking process online.

As I had booked two sectors I booked a different meal on each sector, a total of two meals, but the airline made a mistake with my order and gave me the same meal on both flight sectors. Oh well, first world problems, not a big deal right? So this review will only cover one of the sectors from Amsterdam to Kiev, I did contact the airline after the flights to find out what happened but they never got back to me…

Note that since writing this piece the airline has apparently upgraded the menus onboard.

The meal itself cost EUR9.00 which isn’t too bad when compared to similar meals, however when you pay for a meal in economy the airline will usually spend a bit more money on the concept, or give you an upgraded meal experience. This was your typical economy class airline food tray that you could get on any airline for free normally.

The meal itself wasn’t that appealing at all, it was meant to be some sort of chicken burger dish, the chicken was swimming in that brown/orange sauce and didn’t look appealing at all. The desset was cheaply made with low quality ingredients and the salad was probably the only thing edible.

Probably one of the worst meals of 2016 so far! Check out the comments on Instagram in regards to getting the same meal on a different flight I particularly loved (not) flight attendant Heather Poole’s comments.

GREECE: Airport Train Service Disrupted By Walkouts

Service on the national OSE railway and the Proastiakos suburban railway, which serves Athens International Airport, will be disrupted this week due to staff walkout in protest at privatization plans.

The walkouts are scheduled from 5-8 a.m., 1-4 p.m. and 9 p.m. to midnight on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week, as well as on Tuesday, July 5. On Wednesday, July 4, staff have said they will hold a 24-hour strike to coincide with the deadline for bids in the competition for state companies Trainose and EESSTY.

The action will also affect regional services in the northern port city of Thessaloniki and the western town of Patra.

Commuters to and from Athens International Airport will have to use buses from the metro terminal at Doukissis Plakentias station or the express bus from/to Syntagma and Piraeus.

GREECE: United Airlines to Fly Direct from New York/Newark to Athens in 2016

United Airlines has announced a new route between New York/Newark and Athens with direct flights on a daily basis, starting on May 25, 2016, subject to government approval.

According to an airline announcement, United’s daily nonstop service between Newark Liberty International Airport and Athens International Airport will operate using the Boeing 767-300 aircraft.

United Airlines flight UA124 will depart Newark Liberty International Airport at 5:40 pm and arrive in Athens at 10:40 am the next morning, local time. The return flight UA125 will leave the Greek capital at 12.30 pm, arriving in Newark at 4:30 pm the same day, local time. Flight times will be 9 hours 50 minutes eastbound and 11 hours westbound.

The New York/Newark-Athens route will run until October 5.

United will also add direct flights to Barcelona, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal.

“These new flights during Europe’s peak-summer travel season will provide additional access to Athens, Barcelona and Lisbon from hundreds of points we serve throughout North America, Latin America and the Caribbean,” said Brian Znotins, United’s vice president of network services.

Each new service is subject to government approval.