OA has just announced that it plans to drop its intercontinental routes, sell off its A343s, and become a regional carrier.

Should we expect to see CO there sometime next year? Would be great timing for the Olympics! Also, I dont think CO would like to leave DL as the sole carrier in the NYC-ATH market, unchecked. (or heck, the USA-ATH market!!)

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Stronger than Airbus, Faster than Airbus, Bigger than Airbus... BETTER than Airbus!

If any airline would really think about it, it would have to be CO. they had made a pretty decent market out of TLV, present difficulties not withstanding, of course.

I don't know how the US-Greece air treaty is structured. Regardless that OA will no longer be in the market, the agreement might have to be rewritten before a second US carrier could enter the market.

ATH might not fit with CO's patented "only fly in markets you can gouge in" technique. ATH tends to be a leisure market, with a lot a ethnic traffic. Those flyers don't often buy full fares.

OTOH, CO employees would love to have the chance to fly BF all the way to Greece....

I was just wondering where you read this news about OA as I have not been able to find it anywhere.

Both TW and DL were flying to ATH up until just a few years ago, so no problem with 2 US carriers flying there.

I wonder if AA bought the unused right to fly to ATH when they bought TW? Either that, or nobody wants to fly the route...

I have a friend who is a 777 pilot ewr based. He has heard rumors for several months now that CO is interested in flying the 777 to ATH. We'll see . . . .

Oh pilot rumors huh? Pilots seem to have this habit of talking about "rumored service" to places that they like to fly to. Your friend isn't the same pilot who started the following SYD service rumor, is it?
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum20/HTML/004016.html

Even if CO did begin service to ATH, I'd be willing to bet the farm the EQP would NOT be a 777...

Really? Do they have some new, superduperultra long range jungle jet coming online?

Oh and for the record, Olympic Air's press releases can be found here:

http://www.olympic-airways.gr/PR/oap...es%20of%202002

No mention of any service reductions...

Jeez duxfan don't give them ideas!

EWR-ATH on a RJ. If anyone can do it, CO can.

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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

LOL... Who said EWR-ATH? I was talking IAH-ATH!

C'mon Jon, you know the bean counters in Houston have thought about it! The darn things just don't have the range!

[This message has been edited by duxfan (edited 08-12-2002).]

At a distance of 4952mi, it'd appear that a 762 could hit ATH from EWR. That seems a more likely fleet choice in the event that CO wanted to send its own metal there nonstop. Either that, or perhaps a beyond route on the 777 via MXP/FCO?

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Faire du ciel le plus bel endroit de la terre c'est impossible sans Concorde!
~ConcordeBoy

This is not an OA announcement; it is a proposal by the privatization advisors of the government. Whether it will be adopted or not, remains to be seen. Another proposal for example, submitted by a consortium of the shipping magnate Vardinogiannis and the pilots' union, also among the frontrunners for taking over OA, proposes much more modest cuts, and a 5000 personnel, as opposed to 1800 envisioned by the no-transatlantic-routes model.
As far as the story implied by 777-232LR goes, it was reported by the greek press, both in print and online. Here is a relevant article (in greek) as it appearedand on in.gr on July 31, and here is the translation:

New model for OA
Olympic Airways a regional carrier in the Balkans and Western Europe

Athens: Olympic Airways will be transformed into a regional carrier for the Balkans and Western Europe, with propeller planes and a personnel of 1800, predicts the new operating model worked out by the privatization consultants.
According to Wednesday's "To Vima" [SK: a greek daily], the "new Olympic" to be created by the merger of the three current divisions - OA flight operations, Olympic Aviation [SK: the small aircraft/regional subsidiary] and Macedonian Airlinds [SK: the charter subsidiary] - will have 28 aircraft only, out of which half will be propeller driven ATR and Dornier, while the older jets will be retired and the four A-340s will be sold off.
The business plan, which has been sent to about 60 potential investors, envisions for the new company to have 17-21 B737-400, seven ATR-72, four ATR-42 and six Do228. The routes served will be reduced to 60 from the 90 flown today and all the transoceanic ones will be cut.
The personnel of the "new OA" will shrink to 1800 people, from 4400 today. The proposal of the privatization consultants mentions that pilot numbers will be cut from 633 to 400, cabin crew from 1167 to 500 and ground personnel from 2636 to 900.

[This message has been edited by SK (edited 08-13-2002).]