- Olympic Airlines had problems which Olympic Air seems intent on solving
- Assertive management is pursuing code sharing
- Looks like Olympic Air intends to give Aegean a fight for money, routes, and customers
- The kinks, if any, should be worked out by the 2010 tourist season
- Marfin Investment Group is buying new planes for the island routes
- Hard to tell how the transition will affect travel over the next few weeks and months
- Eyestrain alert - some key booking info is in black & blue letters on a dark blue background
- With the many new aircraft MIG is buying for Olympic Air, the airline will have one of the newest fleets in the world.
- Business class is expected to be substantially upgraded by the new owners.
- New uniforms brighten up the new or newly-retrained crew, but the revamped logo won't confuse anyone - it's almost identical.
- Get-to-know-them specials are offering very low prices to Greece from locations in Europe.
Predicting the final schedules will be tricky as bidding on some routes will continue into 2010. Just because an island route is still being handled by Olympic Air may not mean it will continue to do so next year - though I predict they'll get to keep any routes that they want when all is said and done.
Olympic Air is already pursuing code-sharing arrangements with many other airlines, so don't be surprised if your flight ends up on a different airline.
Political changes underway right now may also affect the airline - PASOK, the party which won the vote in October 2009, has held open the possibility that the Olympic Air may end up partly government-owned.
The old Olympic Airlines could be quirky about credit cards. Olympic Air accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Eurocard.
Here's a peek at the new Olympic Air uniforms and the new logo. Need a reminder of how things used to be? The plane pic on the uniforms page above shows the old logo.
For reservations, passengers can book online or call 801 801 01 01 from a local (in Greece) landline or +30 210 35 50 500 from outside Greece or from cell phones anywhere in the world.
You may see a mention of "PSO" flights - those are low or no-profit "Public Service Obligation" routes, which Olympic will probably continue to serve though Aegean Airlines is putting up a fight for some of them. In the past, these flights were among the most frequently cancelled or combined, but for the near future at least, while Aegean and Olympic are competing vigorously, these lifeline flights to smaller islands should enjoy better service.
