air service to Greece…?

I rather enjoyed this thread and was actually a topic that I’ve thought about for sometime. Obviously not from the business aspect of starting an airline, but moreso from the “are the greek isles underserved to/from Europe by scheduled carriers as opposed to charter carriers” aspect. There’s my 2 cents and will no respect the wishes of the originator.

This thread just made me think of a headline I read back in late 90’s. Stelios Hadji-Iouannou came out and said that EZ jet was going to have a sizeable presence @ ATH Eleftherio Venizelou once it opened in ’01, even going so far as saying that they would have a mini-hub there. I don’t think that’s happened yet. Do they have any other gateways to ATH other than LTN?

Easyjet fly to Athens from London (Luton/Gatwick), Berlin and Milan.

Call me crazy, but I think that the more popular greek isles like CFU, RHO, HER, etc. could use scheduled service rather than mostly charter flights to some of the more popular European gateways to the Greek Isles, like Germany, Scandanavia, and the UK.

That was what I was thinking…lol.

Following a PM from a fellow member, I have decided not to continue this thread any further as it is appraently causing some upset amongst some members, so please consider this thread closed from me! I would like to apologise to all those that I may have upset.

This thread just made me think of a headline I read back in late 90’s. Stelios Hadji-Iouannou came out and said that EZ jet was going to have a sizeable presence @ ATH Eleftherio Venizelou once it opened in ’01, even going so far as saying that they would have a mini-hub there. I don’t think that’s happened yet. Do they have any other gateways to ATH other than LTN?

Call me crazy, but I think that the more popular greek isles like CFU, RHO, HER, etc. could use scheduled service rather than mostly charter flights to some of the more popular European gateways to the Greek Isles, like Germany, Scandanavia, and the UK.

I wouldn’t say STN is a particularly clever place to start from, what with any services from LHR + LGW also taking a number of people from STN area too

Scott

I have noticed that STN does not have any services to Greece besides FlyGlobespan’s service to ATH, could this be a suitable airport to operate from?

I think you need to actually do some market research first..use some CAA survey data to look at travel patterns to determine how and where you could enter the market. Don’t start thinking about aircraft yet…that should be among the last things you consider…you need to get the business plan right and then look at the operational issues to slot into the business plan to hopefully be in a position to go forward for funding, unless your ‘business partner’ is from a Greek shipping family (and called Stelios!) then you will need a robust business plan to raise the cash in the first place….and no airline will go anywhere without a decent sum of money behind them. If you’d like some CAA analysis done…… 😉

Liverpool and Blackpool have few flights to Greece.

Durham Tees Valley 😀

But then I would say that :diablo: Currently only 1 flight per week (in the summer) and thats to Corfu

Scott

Didnt you post before about starting an airline??

Yes, I did post quite a while back bout starting an airline up, but at that time I was unsure of what market and routes I wanted to operate. Now that I have got a better understanding of these factors, I have asked for people’s opinions. If it turned out that I had a negative response, then I would know I would have to re-think my plans.

Are you planning on competing head-on with BA and OA on the LHR-ATH run or routes that don’t currently exist? I know there are lots of charter flights to and from the Greek Isles, but does anyone fly MAN-ATH or LHR/LGW-SKG for instance?

I don’t think that going into competition with two major carriers is the best option for a start-up airline, and I doubt that I would be able to get any decent slots at LHR…

There is a large volume of charter traffic to Greece as it is one of the most popular holiday destinations within Europe, but we were thinking of offering a low-cost service to the island of Crete (Heraklion) to begin with, and then gradually expand out to the mainland and other islands if things were successful!

Does anyone know of any UK airports that have little to no services to/from Greece, and anyone of these that could benefit from a new service?

Olympic fly MAN-ATH. For the moment, at least. 😉

Are you planning on competing head-on with BA and OA on the LHR-ATH run or routes that don’t currently exist? I know there are lots of charter flights to and from the Greek Isles, but does anyone fly MAN-ATH or LHR/LGW-SKG for instance?

Only 10% of start up airlines ever get anywhere close to an aircraft, and then only 1 in 10 get to actualy flying said aircraft. After that about 1 in 20 last the course.

On the face of it, the well known member on this forum, whom Andrewm alludes to, did well beating those odds, albeit briefly. Not to be sniffed at!

Go get em cloud_9! A used 733 will not set you back too much and there are plenty spare parts in the UK to use 🙂

Didnt you post before about starting an airline?? Good luck to you but we all know the history of the airlines that have owners who are members!

The sucessful ones pop up ready to launch.

I can ACMI you a EU Complient 727-200 for about 1550 an Hour US.

MD83’s very cheap to run and quite a few on market.

Yes it’s a good idea, however I do know that Excel do a lot of UK – Greece flights, maybe only once/twice a week from most airports though! B733’s or B734’s would be a good start

Scott