Aviation

Competition commissons in both the European Union and America last month approved the proposed merger between Air France and Holland’s KLM airlines. With this approval of the carrier’s de facto takeover by Air France, KLM’s life as an independent airline comes to an end.

Greece’s national carrier, Olympic Airways, was officially transformed on December 12 into a slimmer, debt-free carrier under the name Olympic Airlines. After 28 years of public ownership, government now hopes to sell at least 51% of the “new” carrier to private investors. Olympic Airlines executes passenger and cargo flights only.

More than a hundred of Greece’s top travel agents arrived last month at the rooftop restaurant and bar area of the Hilton Athens to take part in a workshop organized by SkyTeam airline representatives here in Greece — Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, CSA Czech Airlines, Delta and Korean Air.

From June 3 until September 30 of this year, Delta adds a second direct flight from Athens to New York, says the U.S. airline’s commercial director for Greece and Cyprus, Dimitris Karagioules. The new flight will leave Athens every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Aegean Airlines, the independent Greek airline and ERA award winner, is to launch non-stop flights from Athens to Milan-Linate, Athens to Munich and from Kavala to Munich for the winter season. Athens to Frankfurt frlights are now daily and several other of the carriers routes have increased frequencies.

At a time when most airlines are concentrating on cutting costs and routes, Alitalia took a brave step forward and opened a new route from Thessaloniki to Milan recently with two daily flights. The first flight leaves Thessaloniki at 6:20 and the second at 13:30. Alessandro Amadeo, Alitalia’s general manager for Greece and Cyprus, says he expects the flights will run with a 70% load factor and that he is very optimistic for the future.

Greece’s newest airline, Hellas Jet, held its first meet last month to officially inaugurate its airline and flights from Athens to Brussels, London, Zurich and Paris as it finally received all necessary licenses. Company officials said the carrier would claim a leading role in the European airline environment but has no plans to get involved in the Greek domestic market.

Air France’s planned takeover of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, which would create Europe’s largest airline, may just be the beginning of a trend as airline carriers look to ways to cooperate and cut costs after two years of extensive losses.

SkyTeam Helps Organize Mexican Festival

The U.S. government hopes to prop up suffering airlines at the expense of another profession – travel agents. The Department of Transportation says it is considering outlawing “incentive fees” that computer-reservation systems pay to encourage agents to use their networks.