Olympic Airlines
| Olympic Airlines | |
|---|---|
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| IATA code : | OA |
| ICAO code : | OAL |
| Call sign : | OLYMPIC |
| Founding: | 1957 |
| Operation stopped: | 2009 |
| Seat: |
Athens , Greece
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| Passenger volume: | 3.34 million (2006) |
| Fleet size: | 24 |
| Aims: | National and international |
| Olympic Airlines ceased operations in 2009. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Olympic Airlines ( Greek Ολυμπιακές Αερογραμμές Olympiakes Aerogrammés ), until 2003 Olympic Airways , was a state-owned Greek airline based in Athens . Since the restructuring in 2009, the company has been operating as Olympic Air .
history
Before Olympic Airways, Olympic Airlines' predecessor, there were several Greek state airlines. The first, called Icarus, was founded in 1930 and discontinued a short time later due to financial problems and a lack of interest in air transport. The Greek Airline took its place in 1935. In the same year, a second airline was founded, the private company T. A. E. (Technical and Aeronautical Exploitations / Τεχνικαί Αεροπορικαί Εκμεταλλεύσεις Techniké Aeroporiké Ekmetalléfsis ).
After the war, in 1947, three airlines operated in Greece: T. A. E., G. A. T. / ΕΛΛ. Α. Σ. (Greek Air Transport / Ελληνικαί Αεροπορικαί Συγκοινωνίαι Elliniké Aeroporiké Synkinoníe ) and Hellenic Airlines / Α. Μ. Ε. ( Αεροπορικαί Μεταφοραί Ελλάδος Aeroporiké Metaforé Elládos ).
The 1950s and 1960s
In 1951, the state decided to combine these three airlines, all of which had financial problems, into one, the Hellenic National Airlines T.A.E. This new company also got serious financial problems, so the Greek state ceased operations in 1955. Since there was no interest in buying the airline, the Greek state bought it back.
In 1956, the shipowner Aristotle Onassis bought the airline, which he renamed Olympic Airways ( Ολυμπιακή Αεροπορία Olymbiakí Aeroporía ) on April 6, 1957 . The airline was successful, bought the first jet, a De Havilland Comet 4B , in 1960 , agreed codeshare flights with British Airways , ordered the first Boeing 707-300s in 1965 , established the first non-stop flight from Athens to New York in 1966 and the first connections to it in 1968 Africa. In 1969 the De Havilland Comet 4B were retired.
The 1970s
In 1971, Olympic Aviation / Ολυμπιακή Αεροπλοϊα was founded to make domestic Greek air traffic, primarily to the islands, more economical. In 1972, Greece was first connected to Australia by direct flights. As a result, other Boeing 720-051B and Boeing 747-200 aircraft were purchased. The company was even interested in a supersonic aircraft, and in early January 1973 a BAC-Aerospatiale Concorde landed in Athens for demonstration purposes.
At the end of the same month, the son of Aristotle Onassis , Alexander , was killed in a plane crash. A few months later Onassis sold all of its shares in the airline to the Greek state. At that time the company had 38 aircraft, including 6 Boeing 720/707. Shortly afterwards (1975) Onassis died. Under state management, additional Boeing 737-200 aircraft were purchased and the subsidiary Olympic Catering was founded, which served both Olympic Airways and other airlines. In 1977 the Australian route and a little later the connection to Canada were discontinued as a cost-saving measure. The first Airbus A300 was ordered in 1978 .
The 1980s
In 1984 two Boeing 747-200s (from Singapore Airlines ) were acquired again and connections to Australia and Canada were resumed. Olympic Airways Cargo was founded and on a trial basis a Boeing 707-300 was converted into a cargo plane, but this concept did not prove itself. The airline has had major financial problems since the 1980s, mainly due to management errors. Among other things, the Greek state allowed its politicians and their relatives as well as members of the press to fly standby at a considerable discount of up to 90%. In 1986, severe strikes within Olympic Airways contributed to further financial losses. The subsidiary Olympic Tourist, later Macedonian Airlines, was founded. A direct connection to Tokyo was set up in the mid-1980s, but was discontinued in the early 1990s. Other aircraft were purchased ( Boeing 737-400 and Airbus A300-600R ). Several restructuring measures by the Greek state, during which the large debts were also paid off, failed, including the attempt to place management in the hands of the British Airways subsidiary Speedwing . The result was even higher debt.
1990 to 2009
In 1999 Olympic Airways bought four Airbus A340-313X to replace the aging Boeing 747-200 . In 2003 the Olympic Airways Group was fundamentally restructured. The subsidiary Macedonian Airlines SA was renamed Olympic Airlines SA and took over both the international and domestic flights, which had been operated by Olympic Aviation until then . Olympic catering was sold to the Goody's fast food chain . Olympic Airlines' debts have been repaid in full. The other companies in the group (Olympic Airways, Olympic Into-Plane Company, Olympic Fuel Company, Olympic Airways Handling and Olympic Airways Technical Base) were merged to form Olympic Airways Services SA. In 2004 the Greek state tried to sell Olympic Airlines, but all sales negotiations failed because of the large amount of subsidies that were to be repaid to the Greek state (due to a condition from the EU).
Olympic Airlines was awarded the FSIP Award in the areas of maintenance and safety by Airbus in 2004 and was rated as one of the safest airlines in the world. The airline offered a frequent flyer program and online bookings.
On September 14, 2005, the European Commission requested the Greek government to reclaim the subsidies from the Greek state, which were classified as illegal, from the airline in the amount of 540 million euros. The necessary legal remedies have been lodged. The bankruptcy protection by the state was extended until October 2006, so that Olympic Airlines could continue the flight operations unchanged until then.
Since August 2007, travel with electronic tickets had been possible with Olympic Airlines .
Restructuring as Olympic Air
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At the beginning of March 2009, the Greek media reported that the airline Olympic Airlines will be sold by the Greek state for 177 million euros to MIG ( Marfin Investment Group ), provided that the EU authorities agree. The EU authorities agreed and Olympic was sold to MIG, which re-established the company.
The new Olympic Air has the same IATA code, logo and landing rights. New contracts were negotiated with some of the staff. The old Olympic Airlines stopped air traffic from airports outside of Greece until October 1, 2009. In contrast, the domestic Greek flights continued until the end of November 2009 with the support of the Greek state.
The completely privatized successor company Olympic Air began flight operations on September 29, 2009. Compared to the previous Olympic Airways, 28 destinations abroad - including all destinations in Germany and all overseas connections - as well as 20 domestic Greek destinations were discontinued and only half of those previously 7500 employees taken over. Furthermore, only part of the previous fleet was taken over by the new company for the time being.
Corporate identity
In the early 1990s, a new CI called Rainbow Colors with the basic color turquoise was introduced, the response from customers was poor, and the old CI was revised to the form that was valid until the end. It is unusual that a distinction is made in terms of design between aircraft that are used on short routes and long and medium-range aircraft; the former have no vertical stripes. This goes back to the fact that earlier short-haul flights were operated by the subsidiary Olympic Aviation . After the integration, this distinction was also continued with new machines.
- logo
- When the company was founded, the logo consisted of five elongated rings. These were clearly distinguishable from the sign of the Olympic Games, but Aristotle Onassis did not want to get involved in a legal dispute with the Olympic Committee and took its complaint as an opportunity to change the logo and the corporate design with the now 6 rings, which is still valid today and the italic lettering.
- Uniforms
- Olympic was the first airline to have stewardess uniforms designed by star designers. Coco Chanel also designed for Olympic during his lifetime, as did Yves Saint Laurent and later Pierre Cardin . The uniforms were always tailor-made, and a special atelier was set up in the center of Athens. Until recently, a new collection was introduced every year, and the company's flight captains always wore black ties to commemorate the tragic death of Alexander Onassis .
- Neon sign
- At the intersection of Vouliagmeni and Alimou avenues, which lead from downtown to the airport, Olympic installed a large neon sign in 1963. The inner diameter of the middle circle alone is 10 m. Both technical and legal obstacles had to be overcome, as until then there were only a few free-standing neon signs of this size around the world. With the sale to Olympic Air there was no more interest and the neon sign went offline in 2009 without anyone feeling responsible for the dismantling. Eventually this became a municipal political issue, as many citizens demanded its restoration. The restored neon sign was inaugurated in 2017, now as a landmark. A much smaller neon sign existed in Frankfurt on Willy-Brandt-Platz on the building in which the Greek tourist office was located.
Names of the planes
The aircraft of the Olympic were named after themes from ancient Greece, with each model having a theme. The machines for domestic flights were named after historically important islands. In the early days there was also a topic with queens and princesses of Greece.
| Type | category | Names |
|---|---|---|
| Airbus A300-600R | places | Athina / Αθήνα , Macedonia / Μακεδονία , Creta / Κρήτη |
| Airbus A300B4 | Heroes of the Trojan War | Nestor / Νέστωρ , Telemachus / Τηλέμαχος , Odysseus / Οδυσσεύς Achilles / Αχιλλεύς , Neoptolemus / Νεοπτόλεμος , Peleus / Πηλεύς , Diomedes / Διομήδης , Ajax / Αίας , Idomeneus / Ιδομενεύς |
| Airbus A340 | Ancient sites of Greece | Delphi / Δελφοί , Olympia / Ολυμπία , marathon / Μαραθών , Epidaurus / Επίδαυρος |
| ATR 42 | Ancient philosophers | Plato / Πλάτων , Socrates / Σωκράτης , Aristoteles / Αριστοτέλης , Pythagoras / Πυθαγόρας |
| ATR 72 | Ancient scientists | Thales , Hippocrates , Democritus , Homer , Herodotus , Archimedes |
| Boeing 707 | Ancient city-states | Athens ( Πόλις των Αθηνών ), Lindos ( Πόλις της Λίνδου ), Thebes ( Πόλις των Θηβών ), Pella , Mycenae , Corinth , Knossos , Sparta |
| Boeing 720 | Historically significant rivers | Axios , Strymon , Acheloos , Pinios , Evros , Aliakmon , Nestos |
| Boeing 717 | Constellations | Eridanus / Ηριδανός , Kassiopi , Andromeda |
| Boeing 727 | Mountains of Greece | Olymp / Όρος Όλυμπος , Parnassos / Όρος Παρνασσός , Menalon , Vermio , Dirfys , Pindos , Helikon , Athos , Taygetos |
| Boeing 737-200 | Deities and protagonists of mythology | Hercules , Apollo , Hermes , Hephaestus , Dionysus , Poseidon , Phoebus , Triton , Proteus , Nereus , Atlas |
| Boeing 737-400 | Cities of Macedonia | Vergina , Olynthos , Philippi , Stagira , Dion , Amphipoli , Pella |
| Boeing 747 | "Olympic Aircraft" | Olympic Zeus / Ολύμπιος Ζεύς , Olympic Eagle / Ολύμπιος Αετός , Olympic Spirit / Ολύμπιο Πνεύμα , Olympic Flame / Ολύμπια Φλόγα , Olympic Peace / Ολυρμπαακή Είκ |
| DeHavilland Comet 4B | Female members of the royal family | Princess Sophia , Queen Sophia , Queen Frederike , Queen Olga |
| Dornier 228 | Greek Islands (I) | Leros , Skyros , Kasos , Astypalea , Amorgos , Kythira , Karpathos |
| Douglas DC-6 | Greek Islands (II) | Rhodes , Corfu , Crete , Lesbos , Chios , Limnos , Samos , Kos |
| NAMC YS-11 | Greek Islands (III) | Kephalonia , Ithaca , Samothraki , Zakynthos , Delos , Andros , Kalymnos , Milos |
| Short 330 | Greek Islands (IV) | Patmos , Kastelorizo , Paros , Naxos , Milos , Tinos |
| Short Skyvan | Greek Islands (V) | Mykonos , Skiathos |
| Britten-Norman Islander | Greek Islands (VI) | Kythira / Νήσος Κύθηρα , Karpathos / Νήσος Κάρπαθος |
| Aérospatiale Super Frelon | Deities (II) | Hermes / Ερμής |
aims
Olympic Airlines served a network of 13 intercontinental, 28 European and 36 domestic Greek destinations and was a codeshare partner of Gulf Air , Cyprus Airways , Aerosvit Airlines , Air Malta , Czech Airlines , TAP Portugal and Kuwait Airways .
fleet
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The fleet consisted of 35-40 aircraft for decades. In recent years, leased machines have been increasingly used.
Fleet at the end of operations
Before flight operations ceased, the Olympic Airlines fleet consisted of 24 aircraft as of June 2009:
| Aircraft type | number | Orders | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A319-100 | 8th | sale | |
| Airbus A320-200 | 5 | Takeover by Aegean Airlines | |
| ATR 42-320 | 1 | Takeover of Olympic Air | |
| De Havilland DHC-8-100 | 3 | sale | |
| De Havilland DHC-8-400 | 7th | 8th | Takeover of Aegean Airlines |
| total | 24 |
Previously deployed aircraft
- Airbus A300 -B2 / B4
- Airbus A300-600R
- Airbus A340-300
- Boeing 707-300
- Boeing 717-200 (first customer)
- Boeing 720-051
- Boeing 727 -30 / -200
- Boeing 737-200
- Boeing 737-300
- Boeing 737-400
- ATR 72-500
- Boeing 747-100
- Boeing 747-200
- Britten-Norman Islander
- De Havilland DH.106 Comet 4B
- Dornier Do 228
- Douglas DC-3
- Douglas DC-4 Skymaster
- Douglas DC-6
- Learjet 25
- NAMC YS-11
- Short 330
- Short Skyvan
Incidents
From 1959 to July 2017, Olympic suffered seven total aircraft losses. 198 people were killed. Examples:
- On October 29, 1959, a Douglas DC-3 crashed on the flight from Athens to Thessaloniki ( aircraft registration SX-BAD ). An engine failure resulted in an imbalance that broke the engine and lost control. All 15 passengers and three crew members died.
- On December 8, 1969, an intact Douglas DC-6B (SX-DAE) was approaching a mountain 40 kilometers southeast of Athens-Ellinikon Airport . All 85 passengers and five crew members died. The cause of the accident was a controlled flight off-road (CFIT) .
- On October 21, 1972, a NAMC YS-11 (SX-BBQ) was flown into the sea off the coast of Voula, Athens. Of the 53 occupants, 36 passengers and one crew member drowned, 16 passengers and three crew members were rescued. The cause of the accident was a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT).
- On November 23, 1976, another intact NAMC YS-11 (SX-BBR) flew into a mountain near Kozani, Greece. All 46 passengers and four crew members died. This time, too, the cause of the accident was a Controlled flight into Terrain (CFIT).
- On August 12, 1997, a Boeing 727-230 (SX-CBI) crashed after touching down on the runway at Thessaloniki Airport . None of the 26 passengers and 9 crew members were killed.
reception
As a tribute to the airline, Paul Frank Sunich named his eyewear collection Olympic Airways , and a song by the English indie rock band Foals also bears the name Olympic Airways .
Movie
In the film James Bond 007 , James Bond calls Miss Moneypenny and asks her to call the Olympic office and book a flight to Madrid.
In one episode of A Case for Two , Matula watches a perpetrator go into a 'travel agency'. The lettering Olympic can be seen on the door, it is the entrance of the airline's German headquarters at the time.
The movie Lonely Decision from 1996 is set on a flight from Athens to Washington, the fictional Oceanic (Airlines) uses the abbreviation OA and the colors of Olympic Airlines.
See also
Web links
Wikinews: Olympic Airlines - in the newsIndividual evidence
- ^ Esso Air World, Volume 25/1972, Page 86, 1972
- ↑ Olympic Air: restart with many question marks. (No longer available online.) In: Travel.One. September 25, 2009, archived from the original on December 19, 2014 ; Retrieved December 19, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Greece: Dispute between Olympic Airlines and Aegean Airlines. In: Greece newspaper (online). September 23, 2009, archived from the original on September 16, 2011 ; Retrieved December 19, 2014 .
- ↑ First flights performed: Olympic Airlines - restart as Olympic Air. In: Aero.de. September 29, 2009, accessed December 19, 2014 .
- ↑ ch-aviation Airline Information: Olympic Airlines ( Memento of the original from September 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , October 20, 2009, some information requires registration
- ↑ Accident Statistics Olympic Airways , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 25, 2017.
- ^ Accident report DC-3 SX-BAD , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 23, 2016.
- ^ Accident report DC-6B SX-DAE , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on January 23, 2016.
- ^ Accident report YS-11 SX-BBQ , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 25, 2017.
- ^ Accident report YS-11 SX-BBR , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 25, 2017.
- ^ Accident report B-727-200 SX-CBI , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on August 25, 2017.
