Qatar Air is eyeing Olympic
Interest by Arab investors in Olympic Airlines (OA) seems to be taking off, as Qatar Airways is eyeing the acquisition of the entire OA setup in order to expand further into the world airline market. This week, the government will approve the start of the tender process for the privatization of 49 percent of the three arms of Olympic, which entails separate tenders for the flight schedule operator, the ground-handling service and the maintenance firm. This is expected to up the interest expressed by Goldair and Swissport in the OA’s ground-handling segment. Qatar is interested in OA because a buyout would help it to gain a better footing in the European and American markets. The use of OA’s airport slots is the main attraction for the Arab company, which covers more than 80 destinations and by 2015 will have a total of 110 aircraft. Qatar has been awaiting developments on the OA front for two years now.
