New private carrier links Athens to Cyclades Islands

Another new Greek private airline takes to the skies with scheduled flights in September. Hellenic Star, with a fleet of two-airplanes plans to fly scheduled flights to some 20 islands of the Cyclades. Most of the islands do not host any type of scheduled flights.
Hellenic Star<.> is 51%-owned by Greek-Australian Nikos Balagiannis and 49%-owned by the Bakoum Company, according to press reports. Mr. Balagiannis, who is the major shareholder of the casino on the Cycladic island of Syros, has a chain of hotels in Sydney, Australia.
The airline`s present fleet includes a 50-seat four-engine propeller De Havilland and a 6-seat Beachcraft. The airline says another De Havilland will be added to the fleet before year end. All aircraft are made to take off and land on short runways.
The company`s capital reaches 250 million drachmas and its aircraft are worth about $5 million. It boasts 37 employees, some of which are previous Olympic Airways executives.
September`s initial flight program is to link Syros with Mykonos, Mylos, Paros, Astypallia, Santorini and Naxos-Ikaria. Eventually, the company plans on flights from Athens, Thessaloniki and Crete to the Cyclades. It presently runs charter flights.
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