Aegean Airlines Receives First of Ten New Airbus
Aegean Airlines received the first of ten new Airbus A320/1’s recently ordered by the airline to replace the six Boeing 737-300/400’s, which are in the process of being withdrawn. The airline -whose total investment is some one billion euros- aims to acquire 25 new aircraft in total by 2009, three of which were already received in 2007.
Aegean Airlines receives the next aircraft in mid-February and deliveries are expected to continue throughout 2008 whereby Aegean aims to add eight new A320’s and two A321’s to its fleet.
The company claims this investment is aimed at expansion of the network, increased capacity per flight, reduction in operational costs per available seat and increased fuel efficiency.
Aegean Airlines also announced its new destinations for 2008. In May, the carrier is expected to begin two daily flights to London Stansted Airport with an Airbus A321. It will also undertake one daily flight to Tirana (Albania) with an AVRO RJ 100.
In June the airline enhances its Cyprus connection with two weekly flights from Heraklion to Larnaca Airport and during the peak months of July to October this would increase to four weekly flights. Aegean also anticipates the launch of one weekly flight from Rodos to Larnaca from June to October that would increase to two weekly flights between July and September.
The carrier also announced new domestic routes. The airline launches four weekly flights from Athens to Lemnos on March 30 and daily flights from the first of May. From May 3rd there will be one weekly flight from Thessaloniki to Kos and two weekly flights in July.
The airline also anticipates the launch of a direct flight from Athens to Kefallonia on May 1st with four weekly flights initially, six weekly flights in July and one daily flight in August with an AVRO RJ 100.
Aegean Airlines operates a code share with Air One for destinations in Italy and with Lufthansa for cities in Northern Europe. The carrier recently announced it holds some 25 percent of the movement at Athens International Airport, and in 2007, it carried 5,226,163 passengers with an average of 93 passengers per flight.