Aviation

Five airlines have expressed interest in the tender for the operation of the 24 state-subsidized air routes to remote Greek islands for the period 1 April 2010-31 March 2012.

Air arrivals to Greek airports appeared reduced by 7.8 percent for the January-October 2009 period while for the month of October the decline reached 6.2 percent, the Institute of Tourist Research and Forecasts (ITEP) reported recently.

The operations of the nine remaining state-subsidized air routes (24 in total) to remote Greek islands were awarded to Olympic Air at the price of 5,220,527 euros, the Civil Aviation Authority announced in late November 2009.

MIG President Andreas Vgenopoulos recently criticized Transport Deputy Minister Nikos Sifounakis as he made reference to a “scandalous government inability” and “lack of specific policy in air transports” in regards to the latter’s handling of the interim state-subsidized four-month period route tender.

Qatar Airways recently announced its second daily non-stop flight from Athens to Doha, which would gradually integrate into the existing flight schedule from Athens by March 2010.

Marfin Investment Group will continue to place public interest above short-term business interests for as long as Greece is tested by the crisis, said the company’s President Andreas Vgenopoulos during the official inauguration ceremony of Olympic Air held at the company’s technical base at Athens International Airport.

Aegean Airlines last month rejected allegations from Olympic Air that the launch of the Thessaloniki-Istanbul route on 9 September was a result of a secret agreement between the airlines, the Foreign Ministry and the Civil Aviation Authority.

The necessary route cuts to and from Athens were covered by alliances that Olympic Air secured with other airlines but a similar move was not made for Thessaloniki, which adds to the city’s further aviation isolation, the Professional Chamber of Thessaloniki recently said.

Olympic Air, the successor of former state-run carrier Olympic Airlines, made its first official flight to Thessaloniki on 1 October with an Airbus 320. The first route symbolically retraced the route first taken by Aristotelis Onasis’ Olympic Airways on 6 April 1957 with a Dakota aircraft.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) last month released the international scheduled IATA, which showed a passenger demand decline of 2.9 percent compared with the same month in 2008 while freight demand was down 11.3 percent. The international passenger load factors stood at 80.3 percent.