Majority of OA routes bring losses
Inflexible costs and fierce competition have turned 54 of Olympic Airlines’ 68 routes into loss-making ones, at least according to 2007 figures. Apart from the services to Toronto (the direct flight, not the one via Montreal), Istanbul, Cairo and Tel Aviv, which are profitable, all other 36 routes abroad generate losses for the national airline that last year amounted to 114.9 million euros. The biggest losses per flight were from the Toronto service via Montreal, followed by those to New York and Johannesburg. The domestic schedule is not much better, with 18 out of the 28 routes also failing to turn a profit. This however does not include those that are state-subsidized, where Olympic has a monopoly. The service from Thessaloniki to Rhodes had the greatest losses per flight. Sale procedures December will see the tender for the sale of Olympic Airways, which is set to break up into three companies. Olympic Airlines, which operates the flights, will become Pantheon, while the other two will be responsible for the ground handling and Olympic’s technical infrastructure. The plan submitted by the government to the European Commission envisages the three companies remaining public for a few days prior to the holding of a tender for their sale to private investors. «The tender will be held this year,» says Transport Minister Costis Hatzidakis. At a time when other national carriers such as Alitalia and Austrian Airlines are facing huge problems, it will be quite hard to find buyers for Olympic. Yet the government is determined to resolve the problem that has weighed on the state budget for too long.
