Pantheon proposal
On 16 September 2008, the Greek Government announced a major restructuring of Olympic Airlines, using the "Pantheon Airways" plan to relaunch Olympic as a private airline. Pantheon would operate parallel to Olympic Airlines until April 2009, when Olympic Airlines would be shut down and Pantheon would take over most of its routes. Pantheon would then be renamed using the "Olympic" brand name and its six-rings logo. The new Olympic Air would not be a legal successor to Olympic Airlines or Airways, taking up none of the former employees or assets directly.
In February 2009, an international tender concerning the sale of the three companies and the assets of the Olympic Airlines Group (Flight Operations, Technical Base, Ground Handling Operations) and Pantheon Airways collapsed, as the offers presented by the candidates were deemed not satisfactory by the government. After the collapse of this attempt to sell the company, former Transport Minister Kostis Hatzidakis extended an invitation to financial groups to proceed to direct negotiations for the sale of the Group. First to respond was the Marfin Investment Group (MIG), the largest investment fund of Greece, submitting an offer to buy the flight operations and technical base of the Group. Also, Swissport submitted an offer to buy the ground handling operations. After three weeks of negotiations with MIG, on 4 March 2009, Aegean Airlines and Greek-American consortium Chrysler Aviation, also submitted offers to buy the Group. However, Aegean Airlines' offer was not accepted as the new airline would control over 95% of domestic routes, while the government's financial advisors could not determine whether Chrysler Aviation was in the financial position to support its bid.
MIG era
On 6 March 2009, Development Minister Kostis Hatzidakis announced the sale of the flight operations and the technical base companies to MIG. The negotiations with Swissport continued for another week, to facilitate a commercial agreement between MIG and Swissport. However, a deal was not reached and MIG announced it would take over Olympic's ground handling operations as well.[8] The new owners planned to secure approximately 4,000 of the 8,500 jobs of the Group.
As part of its deal with the Greek state, MIG purchased the assets of Pantheon Airways, some of the valuable slots of Olympic Airlines in New York, London, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Brussels and Bucharest, as well as exclusive rights to the "Olympic" brand name and the six rings logo. It also acquired the right to use the two hangars, the cargo unit of Olympic Airways Services and other facilities at Athens International Airport for 25 years. The new airline planned to only retain 65% of the flight operations compared to Olympic's flight operations in summer 2008, in accordance to a rule imposed by the EU during the approval of the sale.[9] It also had to give up its monopoly on the currently operated state-subsidized island routes, and equally share them with other Greek airlines.[10]
Olympic Handling, as the new ground handling company is named, commenced its operations on 29 June, followed by the new technical base company, Olympic Engineering[11] and finally, on 29 September, the new airline, officially renamed Olympic Air.[8][12] The new name of the company was announced during a tender to modernize and redesign the logo of the new airline.[13] This tender followed a previous one that called for fashion designers to submit their designs for the new uniforms of the airline. Shortly after the deal was struck, MIG announced the recruitment process for the three new companies, as well as new tenders for the acquisition or lease of new aircraft.
Olympic Air ordered eight new next-generation Bombardier Q400 during the 2009 Paris Air Show, four of which will be the Q400 NextGen, that are set to cover domestic and Balkan routes and will start being delivered in July 2010.[14] OA also placed options on a further eight of the type.[15][16][17] Olympic leased a total of 14 A320 series aircraft for its entry into service in September 2009, and plans to order its own aircraft from either from Airbus or Boeing in the near future.
In a press conference on 17 September 2009, MIG president Andreas Vgenopoulos, announced new code share deals, and stated that Olympic Air also has plans to join SkyTeam in the future.[18][19] Vgenopoulos further stated that he wanted to make the company a regional leader, and later, one of the largest airlines in the world if possible.[19] Olympic Air planned to employ around 5,000 staff, some of which include the 8,100 staff employed under the state carrier, with new negotiated contracts.[19] Furthermore, Vgenopoulos stated the company would honor its commitment to give the new government three months to re-nationalize Olympic if it desired.[18][19] Vgenopoulos also stated that a new aircraft order would be announced soon, to replace the current aircraft once their leases run out.[20]
During the inaugural flight ceremony on 1 October 2009, MIG president Andreas Vgenopoulos stated that Olympic Air still holds the exclusive rights to the Macedonian Airlines brand name, and plans to re-launch the airline as a subsidiary of Olympic Air.[21] The new subsidiary would be based out of Thessaloniki, with the purpose of serving the tourism and business needs of the region.[22] The airline will begin operations in spring 2010.[23]
In an October 2009 interview with ATWOnline, CEO Antonis Simigdalas stated that Olympic was now carrying around 10,000 passengers a day with a domestic market share of about 30 percent.[24][25] Simigdalas further stated that the new Olympic Air was about 35 percent smaller than the old Olympic Airlines, and that Olympic Air is planning its own long-haul flights, within a time frame of 12 months.[25] Regarding profitability, Simgdalas stated that with the current economic conditions, he expects Olympic Air to make its first profit in 2012.[26] He further noted that the ground-handling unit was already profitable.[25] In an interview with Flight International, Simigdalis stated that Olympic Air's domestic market share had grown to 47 percent by December 2009.[24] He further stated that if things go well, he predicts the airline will break even in 2011.[24]
On 6 December 2009, Olympic Air announced that it has been chosen as the official carrier of the Hellenic Olympic Committee for three years from 2010 to 2012. Through this sponsorship, Olympic Air has committed to providing free transportation of Greek Olympic delegations to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and 2012 Summer Olympics in London. On 10 December 2009, the company announced that mobile phone check-in is now available for flights departing Athens Airport, making Olympic the first Greek airline to offer this service.[27] As part of its corporate responsibility program, Olympic announced that it would launch an educational programme called "A Day at the Museum", transporting 3500 students from Cyprus to the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, starting from 29 January 2010.[28]
In 2011, Olympic Air announced the start of a premium economy service on its fleet of Bombardier Q400 aircraft for domestic and selected international flights,[29] in addition to its business class service.
Attempted merger with Aegean Airlines
In February 2010, initial shareholder discussions took place to consider co-operation between major competitor Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air fueling rumors of a possible merger.[30] On 22 February 2010, Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines announced that they have agreed to a merger.[31][32][33] The newly merged airline would carry the Olympic name and logo, after a transition period in which both airline brands would be used in parallel.[31] The Aegean brand would cease to exist after the transition period. Furthermore, Olympic Ground Handling and Olympic Engineering would become 100 percent subsidiaries of the new company.[31]
The sole shareholder of Olympic Air, Marfin Investment Group, and the main shareholder of Aegean, the Vassilakis Group, would have an equal shareholding of 26.6% in the combined entity, while the groups of Messrs Laskaridis, V. Constantakopoulos, G. David and L. Ioannou as well as
