Olympic Air to replace Olympic Airlines from October

Olympic Air announced plans to commence operations effective 01-Oct-2009, officially replacing state-owned Olympic Airlines. The core units of Olympic Airlines, including flight and ground operations and the MRO unit, were sold to the Marfin Investment Group in Mar-2009. The carrier will initially operate 21 domestic and international routes. It will codeshare on services to New York, operated by Delta Air Lines and is currently finalising a codeshare agreement with Air France-KLM, as a first step to gain entry in SkyTeam. The carrier plans to increase its fleet, based around A319/A320s and Bombardier turboprops, to 32 aircraft, investing approximately USD1.1 billion.