Olympic Airlines

The former Olympic Airways logo

In 1951 the poor financial state of the three airlines led to a decision by the Greek state to merge them into a single operator, TAE Greek National Airlines (TAE). The new airline operated a fleet of twin-engine Douglas DC-3 airliners on domestic Greek routes until the last example was disposed of in May 1970.[8] A four-engine Douglas DC-4 was acquired in 1950 and this was operated on a route to London.[9] The new airline faced financial problems so the government closed it down in 1955.

There were no buyers for the airline so the Greek State bought the company back. In July 1956 the Greek State reached an agreement with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis for Onassis to purchase the airline. The company flew under the T.A.E. name until the end of the year and for the first few months of 1957. On 6 April 1957 the company was renamed Olympic Airways (Ολυμπιακή Αεροπορία/Olympiaki Aeroporia).

Olympic Airways operated ten Douglas DC-6Bs between 1958 and 1972 serving the longer domestic and European routes.[10]

Olympic Airways' first jet aircraft type, the de Havilland Comet at Manchester Airport in 1966. The BEA codeshare logo can be partially seen on the fuselage, in red.

The new company developed rapidly. To allay the distrust of air transport by Greeks, Onassis developed the "aviation days of ’57" scheme, providing short, free flights in a DC-3 to demonstrate the reliability of air travel.[11] Onassis always wanted to be in the cutting edge of the technology, so in 1959 he signed a deal to buy four de Havilland Comet 4B that in 1960 was Olympic's first jet aircraft, that entered service.[12] Olympic and British European Airways created the first codeshare flights; later the companies expanded their cooperation. When Greek crews had to spend a night in London, British crews would fly the Olympic Comets to BEA destinations, and the same with Greek crews and BEA Comets. On all BEA and OA Comets, there would be a "BEA-OLYMPIC" sign. In 1962 Olympic set a record flying a DH Comet 4B from London to Athens in just two hours and 51 minutes.

In 1965 Olympic ordered Boeing 707-320 jets; they received the first, bearing the name "City of Athens", in 1966. Olympic's first Boeing 707 service was also the inauguration of a non-stop route connecting Athens and New York City (JFK). In 1968 Olympic began serving Africa, with a twice-weekly round-trip linking Athens with Nairobi and Johannesburg. The same year OA received the first of a fleet of Boeing 727-200 jet aircraft. A new Athens-Montreal-Chicago service commenced in 1969. Also in 1969, the airline phased out their Comet 4Bs.

Under Onassis' leadership the airline gained a reputation for lavish style. The cabin crews were attired in Pierre Cardin-designed uniforms and passengers ate with golden cutlery and listened to the stylings of a pianist in the first class cabin.[11]

Olympic Aviation BN.2 Islander at Athens airport in April 1973

Olympic Aviation Short Skyvan at the now closed Athens Hellenikon airport in April 1973

An Olympic Airways Boeing 747-200 in 1986

In 1971 OA purchased new NAMC YS-11 twin-turboprop aircraft to replace the ageing non-pressurized Douglas DC-3 and the Douglas DC-6 pressurised piston-engined airliners still in use on the company's Greek domestic network. In that year they created a subsidiary airline, Olympic Aviation/Ολυμπιακή Αεροπλοΐα, to serve the Greek islands more economically and efficiently. To further this strategy, several examples of the small twin-engined turbo-propeller Short Skyvan utility airliner were obtained for operation on routes serving smaller Greek airports. In 1972 Olympic turned to the important Greece-Australia market, beginning Boeing 707-320 operations between Athens and Melbourne twice a week via Bangkok and Singapore.

Olympic then acquired seven Boeing 720-051B aircraft, a medium-range derivative of the Boeing 707, from Northwest Airlines. The airline also entered the wide-body era by purchasing two new Boeing 747-200s. OA even showed interest in the BAC-Aérospatiale Concorde supersonic airliner and, on 5 January 1973, a Concorde landed at Athens' Hellenikon Airport to give a demonstration.

Boeing 737-400 taking off from London Heathrow Airport (2007)

Airbus A340-300 landing at London Heathrow Airport (2007)

On 23 January 1973, Aristotle Onassis' son, Alexander, died in a plane crash; the event came as a shock to the Greek people and a new phase began for Olympic Airways. A few months later, Onassis sold all of the OA shares to the Greek state and he died shortly afterward (in 1975). In 1976, under state management, OA purchased eleven Boeing 737-200 jet aircraft and created Olympic Catering, which served both OA and foreign airlines. In 1977, in a cost-cutting effort, OA shut down their Australia route, followed by the Canadian one in 1978, when OA also placed orders for four Airbus A300s, plus four options.

In 1984, three more B747-200 aircraft were purchased from Singapore Airlines, and the Canadian and Australian routes were reopened. A new Olympic Airways Cargo division was created by converting the Boeing 707-320 "City of Lindos", but the plans were soon abandoned. In 1986, there were strikes at OA, and financial losses mounted.

The company faced serious financial trouble from the 1980s on, mostly because of management problems. Greek politicians and their families traveled for free or token amounts on the airline. Successive Greek governments also made Olympic carry the press at a 97 percent discount. Olympic AirTours (Ολυμπιακή Τουριστική) was created as a subsidiary of OA, which issued tickets not only for OA, but for other airlines as well. Very soon, Olympic AirTours was renamed Macedonian Airlines and reestablished as a charter flight company.

In 1990 a route to Tokyo via Bangkok was launched but Olympic was soon forced to shut it down, despite very high load factors (95%). Olympic purchased seven Boeing 737-400 aircraft in 1991, as well as the advanced version of the A300, the A300-600R. Due to the rising losses and debts, the government decided to formulate a restructuring program in which all debts were erased. This programme, as well as all the plans that followed, failed. A few years later, in an attempt to make OA profitable, management was given to a subsidiary of British Airways, Speedwing. The result was even larger debts and rising losses. In 1999, Olympic purchased four Airbus A340-313X aircraft, to replace the ageing B747-200.

By December 2003, the Olympic Airways Group of Companies owned Olympic Airways (Ολυμπιακή Αεροπορία), Olympic Aviation (Ολυμπιακή Αεροπλοϊα), Macedonian Airlines (Mακεδονικές Αερογραμμές), Galileo Hellas (Γαλιλλαίος Ελλάς), Olympic Fuel Company (Ολυμπιακή Εταιρεία Καυσίμων), and Olympic Into-Plane Company. Olympic Catering had been sold a few months earlier. A company formed in the ’80s called Olympic AirTours (Ολυμπιακή Τουριστική) had already been transformed into Macedonian Airlines.[13]

Olympic (former) 727 with 747 in the background

Very soon the losses became excessive, so in 2003 the government restructured the Olympic Airways Group of Companies. The subsidiary, Macedonian Airlines S.A., was renamed Olympic Airlines S.A. and took over the flight operations of Olympic Airways, erasing at the same time all of the airline's debts. The remaining group companies, except for Olympic Aviation (Olympic Airways, Olympic Into-Plane Company, Olympic Fuel Company, Olympic Airways Handling and the Olympic Airways Technical Base), merged and formed a new company, called Olympic Airways – Services S.A.. In December 2004, the Greek government decided to privatize Olympic Airlines, but the sale process ended in failure as none of the buyers was eager to repay the Greek state almost 700 million euros in state aid, which was later declared illegal by the European Commission in December 2005.

In 2005, the Greek Government looked for potential buyers to privatise OA. In April of that year, a short list of potential buyers was submitted that included Aegean Airlines, German LCC DBA and a Greek-American consortium called Olympic Investors.[14] Shortly afterwards Aegean Airlines pulled out, followed by DBA. In September 2005, the Greek government signed a non-binding agreement with Olympic Investors to buy the airline.[15] In an interview, Olympic Investors stated that they were backed by York Capital with 6.5 billion dollars and assured that OA's workers would not lose their jobs. They stated that OA should continue to operate as an integrated company and that they were not interested in buying just parts of OA. By the end of the year, the offer fell through because the huge fine imposed on the airline by the European Commission had not been dealt with.

Airbus A300B4-600R

ATR 72-202

According to Greek media, the government planned to relaunch the company in late 2006.[16] The code name for the project was Pantheon Airways. In June 2006, Greek media reported that Sabre Aviation Consulting Services was contracted by the Greek government to find investors and develop a business plan for an airline to replace Olympic Airlines, aiming to begin operations in autumn 2006. Under this plan the government would be a minority shareholder of the new carrier, which would be run as a private airline. The planned re-launch date passed without anything happening, and the plan was temporarily frozen.

In 2006 O.A. was thrown a life line, when the courts ordered Greece to repay them almost 564 million euros owed to the airline. The money was owed to O.A. from legally subsidised routes to Greek islands and costs of the relocation to the new airport. The money would be used to pay back part of the state aid declared illegal by the European Commission in December 2005.[17] Olympic Airlines redesigned their website to introduce their e-ticket service, launched on 31 July 2007, in response to the surge of online booking and online check-ins. The e-ticket service introduction by Electronic Data Systems meant Olympic abolished their old "Hermes" booking system, which had served the company for more than two decades. As of November 2007, the e-ticket service was available on all European and International routes, and on 19 of the airline's 37 domestic routes.[18]

On 12 September 2007, the Luxembourg-based EU court ruled that Olympic should repay an amount of money less than what the EU Commission had ordered. This amount included unpaid taxes on fuel and spare parts, as well as unpaid fees to Athens International Airport. The new amount owed by Olympic was €130 million, as compared with the original €160 million.[19] On that same day, Olympic Investors, the Greek-American consortium that was interested in buying Olympic in 2005, stated renewed interest in buying the airline.[20]

An Olympic Airways Boeing 747-200 with its brand blanked out

In November 2007, Irish airline Ryanair filed a suit with the European Commission, saying that they had not looked into their claims that Olympic had not paid back their debt. On 1 December 2007 transport minister Kostas Hatzidakis announced that the entire Olympic Airways Group debts amounted to two billion euros, and that the airline in its then form and size would cease existing in 2008.[21] This was deemed to be the only way for the European Commission to write off the company's debts to the Greek public sector. He stated that Athens was under more pressure to recover the money Olympic owed because of the Ryanair lawsuit.[6]

Despite all predictions, traffic for Olympic in 2007 increased to a total of 5,977,104 passengers (3,115,521 in domestic and 2,681,583 in international flights) compared to approximately 5,500,000 passengers in 2006. It is estimated that OA earned approximately 780 million euros in 2007, 500 of which came from international flights.[22] However, in 2008 due to lack of aircraft Olympic Airlines cancelled or merged a significant number of flights, about 6,000 according to their union (as of 26 August 2008). Olympic Airlines officials have declared that this is not the major problem since "after all the income reduction is only 4–5 million euros compared to the initial budget plan".[23]

On 6 March 2009, Development Minister Kostis Hatzidakis announced the sale of the flight operations and the technical base companies to Marfin Investment Group (MIG). As a result, after 35 years of state control and ten years of failed sales attempts, Olympic once again become a private corporation. The new owners were to secure approximately 5000 of the 8500 jobs of the Group.

On 28 September 2009, Olympic Airlines ceased to fly to most of their 69 destinations, maintaining flights to Tel Aviv, Beirut, Cairo and all public service obligation routes within Greece, until the Ministry for Transport and Communications redistributed the routes in late November, when Olympic Airlines entered liquidation. Existing passengers were accommodated on other airlines. Employees of the old company that were in destinations no longer served may have been affected.

The last Olympic Airlines flight was flight 424 from Toronto via Montreal, landing at 11:10 on 29 September 2009 at the Athens International Airport. Olympic Air took over the rest of the operations on 29 September 2009 and their first flight was on 1 October 2009 at 06:20 leaving the Athens International Airport and heading to Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport.

Olympic Airlines operated the following fleet at the time of closure:

Olympic Airlines has previously operated the following aircraft:[24]

The first logo of the airline was a white eagle, bearing a resemblance to a propeller, featuring five rings and the name Olympic. Just two years after the first flight, Onassis asked his associates to design a new logo and the coloured rings were created. Onassis wanted to copy the five coloured rings of the Olympic emblem, but the International Olympic Committee claimed the rights to the emblem, so a new, six ring logo was introduced. The first five rings stand for the five continents, while the sixth stands for Greece.[28] Colours used were yellow, red, blue and white.

The new logo for Olympic air was selected from among three proposals by an online vote which was open until 5 July 2009 on oalogo.gr. All proposals were expected to keep the six circles and to modernise the existing logo. The logo that was finally selected is a bevel version of the existing logo and font, with the exception that green has replaced the light blue on some circles. Green along with blue is one of MIG's corporate colours (as seen on Marfin Egnatia bank's logo for example) and was thus also used per the request of MIG on the new uniforms too.

• The Olympic name came about as a result of Onassis' passion for ancient Greece. Many of his companies carried the Olympic name such as Olympic Maritime. He followed the same naming pattern for his ships (with names such as "Olympic Legacy", "Olympic Palm", "Olympic Explorer", etc.)
• According to OA regulations, all male flight attendants must wear a black tie, thus paying tribute to the late Alexander Onassis.
• Uniforms for OA flight attendants were created by famous fashion designers. The first uniform was designed by Jean Dessès in 1957, followed by uniforms designed by Coco Chanel (1966), Pierre Cardin (1969), Yiannis Tseklenis (1971), Roula Stathi (1976), Billy Bo (1981),[29] Aspasia Gerel (1987), Makis Tselios (1992) and Artisti Italiani (1998).