Olympic Airways loses customers to private Greek carriers

State-owned Olympic<.> Airways failed to pick up the major loss in passengers it experienced in the first half of last year. Traffic for the first six months of this year was on the same level with that of the same period last year when strike action cost the airline some 600,000 passengers, when compared with first-half 1997 traffic.
While many of these lost passengers elected to fly other international carriers, a good majority selected private Greek airlines. Within the past two years, these privately-owned carriers have become very competitive, not only on domestic routes but also on international routes, especially to destinations in the UK, Italy and Germany.
According to estimates, these private airlines carried 550,000 passengers in the first seven months of this year, compared with 800,000 for the entire 12 months of last year. The lion`s share was carried by Air Greece, with Aegean, Cronus and Axon taking care of the rest.
Olympic, according to official data, carried 2.40 million passengers during the first half of this year. Almost half of that total was on international routes as compared with domestic routes. Last year, the total carried for the same six-month period was 2.36 million passengers.
The state-owned carrier, however, hopes to improve now that it is being managed by Speedwing of the UK, which has a two-year management contract.
The company has already found a barrage of management problems, especially in the sales department and is ready to enforce an administration changes. It also intends to launch a new sales program that starts this month.
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