:D!

How about the other direction? Africa, India etc. I guess there may not be much demand plus more pressures on ATH which isn't set up to be a big hub (look at IST for comparison)

If A3 ever flies to HKG I may give up BA completely...

irishguy28

Turkish, Emirates, Qatar and Etihad more or less have the eastbound markets from Europe sewn up.

BA? Why aren't you flying CX??? Far better in my opinion!

Demonoid

So Airbus have announced the new A321XLR with a range up to 8,700 km
https://www.airbus.com/newsroom/pres...e-a321xlr.html

There has been discussion in the past about whether Aegean will introduce long haul flights into their network - which up will now would have required wide-body aircraft. That seemed to be a risky venture which the airline appears to be shunning at least in the short term.

However, with this new aircraft, the risks would be mitigated. They already have A321's in their fleet so there will be minimal overheads (training, costs etc). The range could handle New York to Athens...just. But given this route is now served by 3 airlines (Emirates, Delta, United), would they consider Boston? It's the 6th biggest combined statistical area in the USA at just over 8m in the catchment area (a million more than Greater Philly where American currently fly to Athens from). There are many Greeks Americans in Boston (second after New York) who'd otherwise probably be travelling to New York as there are no direct Boston/Athens flights. And it's also a tad closer than NYC so it would comfortably be within range of the new A321XLR.

This could represent an low risk opportunity for Aegean to test the water. The only modification I would make to their hard product would be a better business class - dedicated wider 2 x 2 recliner seats.

KLouis

Back in the 80s OA was flying ATH-BOS-JFK-ATH with a 747. My cousin was the station manager at JFK and then after a few years with PanAm, he had the same position at BOS. I remember him telling me how hard he was trying to convince the, then, responsible people in Athens how OA was losing a lot of money flying to BOS on a daily basis. Of course, back then there was no possibility to fly across the Atlantic in a small plane, and a dedicated wide body would have been too big. At any rate, ~200 seats daily throughout the year? I am not that optimistic, but let's wait and see.

headingwest

How about BOS in the summer and BKK in the winter!?

Looking forward to using my upgrade vouchers!

Demonoid

I am not saying they run it everyday, it could be a summer seasonal for 3 or 4 days a week.

Thai used to fly to Athens via Bangkok - I caught that flight back in 2004. But the vast majority of the plane was full of us Aussies, so it would only work if they codeshared with Thai. They are both Star Alliance so definitely possible.

irishguy28

The flight surely originated in Bangkok, which is, afterall, TG's home base.

If it stopped along the way, could you clarify where? Thanks!

(At the time of its cancellation BKK-ATH was operated direct, non-stop)

irishguy28

I'm not at all convinced that BKK would be the best destination for A3. It's a very low yielding route that other European players struggle to make money on.

https://www.businesstraveller.com/bu...unich-bangkok/

Air Italy also terminated their BKK flights in March of this year

Demonoid

KLouis

The "low yield", quasi empty business class ATH-BKK on Thai resulted in a free business class ticket that I used, six months later, to have my wife accompany me for a two-weeks long business trip in Thailand. On occasion of the 70 years of the reign of King Bhumibol in 2006 TG had a lottery on board where one could win the free ticket, one for business class and one for coach. Now, I was sitting up front either alone or with another passenger, I don't really remember, thus my chances were either 50% or 100% . At any rate, I loved my frequent trips on TG and the "empty" business class although at that time I was usually flying KLM or AF that were, both, more expensive and packed.

DELLAS

Love the humour KLouis! . It was clowns at HQ in ATH that wasted billions of Δρχ. on routes that never made money and they had no qualifications to turn the routes around either. That coupled with decades of governments who also bailed out the project. When other airlines were offering flatbeds OA was still stuck in the 80s with its J product. Had you had a style of A3 management we have today in the private sector running things I think we would be in a very different world today. OA would still be flying with some A330s and a modern product to a few key destinations outside of the current max 4 hour durations with a fleet of A320s similar to what A3 have now and feeding the A330 routes. Sadly that ship was never to sail and all we are left with is nostalgia and the realisation that Greece threw their flag carrier away due to corruption, greed and imcompetence.

I just pray that A3 does not ever get tempted to do the same. A few wrong moves dabling into longhaul and the whole company will go down in history.

djjaguar64

I'd like them to fly to YYZ.

unusualtravelblog

A lot of Greeks live in Canada, so might be interesting route.

DELLAS

nk15

AA added another daily to ATH this year, from ORD, so now there are at least 5 flights daily to/from the US seasonal, or maybe more, if DL still does 2x a day. So there is seasonal demand for the route it seems.

The flight range may be a stretch though for the new aircraft, I think there supposed to be a buffer?