Aegean and Olympic Air merger

[Air Key West]

Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air set to merge. Read info below
http://en.aegeanair.com/news.aspx?newsItem=748

[diminbru]

will this affect the entry of Aegean to *A? It might be delayed if the new company wants to join *A.
I thought OA was in talks with Skyteam to join them.

[Air Key West]

We'll have to wait to see whether the new airline will apply for membership with *A or Skyteam and/or if these two alliances will battle to get the new airline as a member. I have not idea of what's going to happen there. Anyone any info ?

[diminbru]

strange, at the end, the press release says :

Alliances: AEGEAN has been accepted and is in the process of joining STAR ALLIANCE by June 2010.

[Air Key West]

Strange indeed, especially since the new airline will be called Olympic Air. Maybe there will be some reshuffling of the cards.
You may also read the article in Neweurope (although it is a bit long) :
http://www.neurope.eu/articles/OlympicA ... /99146.php

[fretn]

what will they do with their huge capacity of narrowbodies?

[diminbru]

what will they do with their huge capacity of narrowbodies?

good question; looks they have a lot A32F now...and a very young fleet for both carriers.

[BrightCedars]

I'm pretty sure there will be much less than about 100 planes in the medium term.

Doesn't LH have equity in Aegean? In that case I think they and Star Alliance are just about to rob away the Greek market. I'm not sure this will benefit competition in the long run, but it will sure help the bottom line of those carriers and of their alliance partners.

European skies in the not too distant future: Lufthansa with LH group airlines and Star Alliance, Air France-KLM with Skyteam, BA and Iberia with oneworld, Ryanair, easyJet, crumbs for the others until they die or get swallowed. About 5 main competitors, that should be good enough for some time.

[airazurxtror]

The merger Olympic-Aegean runs into problems with the European Commission, regarding loss of competition in Greece :


http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... urdle.html

If the merger Ryanair-Aer Lingus has been forbidden by the EU, one doesn't see why the merger Olympic-Aegean would be allowed.

[sn26567]

If the merger Ryanair-Aer Lingus has been forbidden by the EU, one doesn't see why the merger Olympic-Aegean would be allowed.

On the other hand, the European Commission allowed the merger between SN Brussels Airlines and Virgin Express.

[bxleu]

Commission blocks proposed merger between Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air
The European Commission has prohibited, on the basis of the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed merger between Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air, as it would have resulted in a quasi-monopoly on the Greek air transport market.
Full press release at http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAct ... e=IP/11/68

[sn26567]

That is good news for Star Alliance. Aegean will remain a member!

[theeuropean]

The combined company would have remained in Star Alliance...I'm not so sure Greece can sustain 2 full service carriers. But I'd like to be proven wrong.

[RoMax]

Indeed Olympic was suposed to enter Star Alliance as part of the merger. What will happen now? Will they try to work together as good as possible or will they really play a hard game?

[theeuropean]

Both have stated that they will review the outcome and then come to a decision. If they cannot merge (after an appeal - and if they do one) I'm guessing they will play hard ball. Olympic Air will go to Skyteam and Aegean in Star Alliance.

Regarding what Marfin Investment Group (the owners of Olympic) have said in the past I think they are aiming for starting longhaul from around 2012.

In other news Hellenic Imperial has finally given some news on its website. Johannesburg is cancelled. They have recieved permission to start to fly to New York, Chicago, Montreal and Toronto. They are also in negotiations with Melbourne to start flying there also. They want to commence flights in May and early June at the latest.

Rumors have spread that 2 Olympic Airlines A340's have been sold and will be sent off in the first quarter of 2011. But to who is the mystery. Im wondering if it's Air Zimbabwe

[Boeing767copilot]

Aegean Airlines and Marfin Investment Group agreed today on the sale of 100% of Olympic Air to Aegean.

[RoMax]

I'm curious what the EU is going to say about this. Since they stopped the merger early 2011, Olympic returned to an almost only domestic airline. Aegean didn't really grew either, but at least they grew out to thé airline of Greece.
On the international market it doesn't seem a problem (are there even international routes on which Aegean and Olympic still compete?), tough they would still be hugely dominant airline on the Greek domestic market...

[Boeing767copilot]

PRESS RELEASE
22 October, 2012

AEGEAN agrees with MIG to acquire OLYMPIC AIR


Aegean Airlines and Marfin Investment Group agreed today on the sale of 100% of Olympic Air to Aegean.

Following the completion of the transaction, Olympic Air will become a subsidiary of the listed Aegean. The brand names and logos of the two companies will be maintained and each will have distinct aircraft and flight staff. The unification of administrative, planning, purchasing and commercial functions will lead to substantial economies of scale, in buying power and elimination of duplicate systems. Fleet usage and network planning will be optimized to improve efficiencies and connectivity while improving coverage and product offer.

The deal is subject to approval by the Competition Authorities, a process which will also determine the timing of its execution.

The consideration for 100% of Olympic Air has been set at €72 mil with payment in installments to MIG by Aegean. The shareholding structure of Aegean is not affected by the transaction.

Theodoros Vassilakis, Chairman of Aegean Airlines, commented on the deal: «Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air in recent years have invested $2 billion in a brand new fleet. Their service quality has been recognized with the receipt of numerous industry Awards. The two companies contribute in excess of €270 million to the Greek state revenues in airport taxes, fees, social security contributions. However, our subscale size, combined with the effects of the unprecedented Greek crisis, restrict our ability to successfully compete within the European and Global Aviation market leading us to further losses and further reductions of size and scope. As a result we are faced with the immediate danger of Greek Tourism, an industry essential for the country’s recovery, becoming entirely dependent on foreign carriers with permanent losses in local employment and state revenues.
Aegean still possesses the financial reserves to lead the consolidation of aviation in Greece to the benefit of tourism and state revenues as well as our employees and shareholders. The synergies from this agreement will allow us to reduce unit costs and offer enhanced network coverage with competitive prices to the consumers. We hope that all Greeks will support us in this challenging, ambitious and necessary endeavor»



Companies’ Profiles


Fleet October 2012
AEGEAN OLYMPIC AIR
A321 4
A320 22 5
A319 3 2
Airbus Α320 Family 29 7


Bombardier Q400 0 10
Bombardier Dash 8-100 0 4
Total 29 21


Routes (Scheduled network – Summer 2012)
AEGEAN OLYMPIC AIR
Domestic 19 38
International 51 7


Annual Financial Results FY 2011 (in million €)
AEGEAN OLYMPIC AIR
Revenue 668.2 240.5
Net losses after taxes (27.2) (37.6)


Passenger traffic 2012 (estimate in million passengers)
AEGEAN OLYMPIC AIR
Domestic 2.6 2.3
International 3.4 0.6
Total 6.0 2.9

[sn26567]

Olympic Air to retire remaining A319s and A320s by end of March

Olympic Air (OA) will phase out its remaining two A319-100s and three A320-200s by the end of this month. The aircraft are no longer scheduled to operate on Olympic's scheduled domestic and regional flights from March 30 onwards.

Olympic will cancel its services from Athens to Larnaca (LCA) and Tel Aviv (TLV) and from Thessaloniki (SKG) to Chania (CHQ), Heraklion (HER), Mykonos (JMK), Mytilene (MJT), Rhodes (RHO) and Santorini (JTR).

It will continue to operate eight Dash 8-400s and two Dash 8-100s. Some of the aircraft including A320-200 SX-OAH (c/n 3316) are expected to be transferred to Aegean Airlines (A3).

The European Commission is currently reviewing the proposed acquisition of Olympic Air by Aegean Airlines originally announced in October 2012.

Source: ch-aviation

[airazurxtror]

The European Commission is currently reviewing the proposed acquisition of Olympic Air by Aegean Airlines originally announced in October 2012.

After the EC decision to prohibit the proposed acquisition of Aer Lingus by Ryanair, it will be interesting to see what will be the EC position on this one.