Ceremony for the accession of Aegean Airlines to the Star Alliance network. El. Venizelos airport Athens, Wednesday, June 30th 2010

NARRATOR:

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome on stage the representatives of the STAR ALLIANCE family.

Representing:
Air India, Kumar Palid.
Bluel, Tom Cristides.
Adria Airways, Tomas Konstanzec.
Croatia Airlines, Swemia Radmilo
Austrian, Kurt Sauertsopf
LOT Polish Airlines, Oli Over.
South African Airways, Jason Krauser.
Brussels Airlines, Eric Follie
TAM Airlines, Paolo Castelo Branco.
Bmi, Tony Witpee.
Swiss, Ignacio Strano.
Singapore Airline, Go Tsu Fon.
Turkish Airlines, Orhan Civrikaya.
Air New Zealand, Norm Thomson.
US Airways, Dennis Turney.
Continental Airlines, Marc Owen.
SAS, Simon Handson.
Air Canada, Yve De Frain.
THAI, Kridi Bonsun.
Air China, Mme Jean Lang.
United Airlines, Marc Swap.
Spanair, Mike Suchs.
ANA, Kisuki Okada.
Egypt Air, Hussein Massut.
TAP, Manol Torress.
Lufthansa, Wolfgang Mayrhuber.
Asiana Airlines, Yong Du Yun.
Aegean Airlines, Eftichios Vassilakis.
Aegean Airlines, Dimitris Gerogiannis.
Aegean Airlines, Theodoris Vassilakis.
Star Alliance, Jaan Albrecht.

Thank you.

COORDINATOR:

Good evening. On behalf of the management of Aegean Airlines and the management of STAR ALLIANCE, we would like to thank you very much for honoring us with your presence here today, in this ever so important moment for Aegean Airlines, for Greek air-transport overall, today. Today the largest airline of Greece becomes a member of the largest airline alliance of the world.
At this particular point I have the honor to call on the Chief Executive Officer of STAR ALLIANCE, Mr. Jaan Albrecht. Mr. Albrecht, you have the floor. Thank you.

Mr. ALBRECHT:

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. And if I look around the audience, I must say: welcome back.
I recognize many familiar faces from around the world, that have been following the development of our alliance over the years and have come a long way to Athens today to attend this important celebration.
For me it is a privilege to take the stage on behalf of the leadership of our world team.
One more time, the STAR ALLIANCE family is growing today. One more time, are we adding a high quality brand name to our impressive list of world class airlines.
One more time are we proud to call an exciting country our home, the STAR ALLIANCE home.
This exciting country, Greece and its people, stand for rich culture, beautiful nature, enjoyable hospitality. No wonder that this country has always been a center for trade and for tourism.
Greek people have traveled the world long before many others. And Greek people continue to enjoy traveling and connecting to communities in ever corner of the globe.
STAR ALLIANCE can simply not afford not to have a home here in Greece. Our new home market will be served under the leadership of a fascinate airline, Aegean.
Fascinating because of its young and successful history. Fascinating as well because of the stringent and entrepreneurial business concept of its owner and its management. And fascinating because of its competitiveness in the market place, based on its dedication to cost efficiency, to quality and to service.
Gentlemen, in only a few years you have managed to make Aegean the flag carrier of this proud country. And you have set the stage for further controlled goals by combining the Greek airline industry forces in the interest of the traveling public.
You and your team deserve our congratulations and our respect.
In so many ways your company’s values, sustainable growth, commercial success, customer centric service, your business attitude and the spirit of your people are perfect examples for true Greek values, which sometimes have been forgotten in recent reporting about this country in other parts of the world.
I am sure that as of today, your existing customers will enjoy even more flying on Aegean, as you now offer a surpassed network and superior flying benefits.
And as of today many more customer will make Aegean their choice when traveling in Europe. The reasons for that are easy to explain. And as much as our competitors may claim the contrary, no other airline network offers more flights, offers more destinations, offers better connections. And no other airline network has more experience in working together a cross-culture, a cross-borders and time zones for the benefit of the world wide travelers.
With this announcement today we are manifesting our industry leadership in a time of harsh global competition. Alliances around us are trying to copy our model, whereby certain other airlines publicly attack the reasoning for such global corporations, with arguments which can easily be identified as selfish.
In other words, never has competition been more aggressive.
Being not very far way from the birth place of the largest global sports event, Olympia, I am tempted to say in the spirit of any athlete, STAR ALLIANCE loves to compete, as long as the game remains fair and the plane field is leveled.
We are a global team accepting the challenge to convince our customers with supreme value for affordable money.
Ladies and gentlemen, today marks the end of what we in STAR call the integration period for Aegean into our alliance.
Since the day that we had announced the acceptance of Aegean’s membership application last year, here in Athens, Aegean with the help of sponsor carrier Lufthansa, all of the members in my little team in Frankfurt have worked intensively to align the processes to connect the systems and to build the products required by our proven standards.
During all the time, we have experienced our new Greek friends as highly skilled, young and dynamic team, full of ideas and full of energy and enthusiasm. What a great addition to our family.
Dear colleagues at Aegean, as much as it may have been extra time and extra work, it was well worth it. I have been notified by our team that all the requirements for membership have been satisfactory fulfilled.
Congratulations, Mr. Vasilakis, for a well work done.
We all in STAR ALLIANCE look forward to many years of successful collaboration in our unique family.
And now, the only task remaining for me is to publicly announce to the world that with immediate effect Aegean is a member of STAR ALLIANCE.
Finally, to all our new customers and friends, may I extent a very proud welcome to STAR ALLIANCE. Thank you.

COORDINATOR:

Thank you, Mr. Albrecht.
At this point, I would like to call on the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lufthansa, Mr. Wolfgang Mayrhuber. Mr. Mayrhuber the floor is yours.

Mr. MAYRHUBER:

Ladies and gentlemen, Jaan, I can be very brief, as I subscribe every sentence, every word that you have said.
I am standing here, because Lufthansa have the extreme pleasure to be the sponsor mentor of Aegean to join STAR ALLIANCE. And I have to say, Theodore and his son have not only convinced us about the prospects that we have, but the employees have done such a great job that one of the philosophers in your famous country, who said “Ambitious in the job really brings perfection to work.”
And that is what we have realized during the process. Congratulations, Theodore, and congratulations to the (…).
We know, as we work in our business, how important it is to bring people together. We know what a stimulating factor is mobility, but we know also in our days’ economical environment what kind of stimulus factor mobility is.
That is why we urge the governments and everybody to support this industry, not to burn it, but to support it in order to connect more and more people and make sure that the world is better connected.
That is why we are here; that is why we welcome very much this fine airline, Aegean, and the perfect leadership, these great people and a great country. Thank you very much and welcome.

COORDINATOR:

And now, the Vice-Chairman of Aegean, Mr. Eftichios Vassilakis.

Mr. EFTICHIOS VASSILAKIS:

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming here today. It is, indeed, a very important day for us.
 For eleven years Aegean has been on the market here in Greece; and over these eleven years there have been important milestones, important moments of success as well.
 On behalf of Mr. Theodoros Vassilakis, we can thank him rather for providing a new face to this market, a new impetus and a new breath, if you like, in this market as well.
 Everybody in Aegean has played a very important role. Everybody, who everyday changed this particular vision, the vision of Mr. Vassilakis, to meet the demands, the needs of consumers throughout the country.
 Our company has matured over the years and we realized that the moment had come to look outward more so than in the past. And that is when we began this particular cooperative effort with Lufthansa.
 We would like to thank Mr. Mayrhuber ever so much for all of his support over these years. This gives us the possibility to understand what it really means to be a major air transport provider; to see what sort of aspects of company had to improve, had to develop, in order for us to be able to offer more to our company and to our partners as well.
And within the framework of this particular alliance and this integration period, we forged new ties and finally in 2008 that final moment came for us to enter the alliance.
So now, the entrance finally into the STAR ALLIANCE of Aegean is the last step in a very-very long course, indeed.
 We would like to thank this alliance, with this ever so important air transport companies, airlines. We would like to thank you for your support and for everything that has been offered to us and for everything that was offered to everybody worldwide through STAR ALLIANCE.
Of course, Aegean will not be the largest member within STAR ALLIANCE, because STAR ALLIANCE has 4,000 aircraft and serves 600 million passengers each year.
 However, we are certain that even though we are not the largest, undoubtedly we will be of those who will be extremely dynamically developing, with our strong points in quality, fleet and age of fleet as well; and also for the level of service which we render and provide and which distinguishes us in the Greek market as well.
Already, we have undergone the first test with great success. It was during that adjustment period of the last 12 months, when we upgraded numerous aspects of our systems, with wonderful work which was done by an excellent team of people who I would like to thank and Mr. Gerogiannis will speak to us a little bit about that later on.
So we upgraded our systems and we incorporated ourselves into the alliance in 12 months. This is a very good result, indeed, I feel.
The most important thing is that from today our company and Greece now has its own star in the constellation of airlines and air transport providers.
Thus, we are giving a very important message outward. Of course, our country is going through very difficult times; but not only do we not accept the international downgrading of our country, but I would say that we achieve a certain amount of international upgrading with the entrance of our company into STAR ALLIANCE.
Indicating the possibilities offered to our customers; the possibilities offered to Greece, to Greeks, to foreigners as well, to tourism in our country, upgrading overall anything that means Greek air transport.
In this journey of Aegean, this journey continues with international and of course local agreements. I am referring to the agreement that has now been forged with Olympic Air, indicating something of the developmental course of our company, the increased viability of our company as well, and the increased level and quality of services that we provide to our users.
Once again, I would like to thank all of you and I would like to thank all those that helped us, support us and fly with us. Everybody honors us with their presence. Thank you very much.

COORDINATOR:

I would like to call on the CEO of Aegean, Mr. Dimitris Gerogiannis.

Mr. GEROGIANNIS:

Dear colleagues, friends, associates.
Today is a very important day, the beginning of a new era for Aegean and its passengers, with the entrance of Aegean into STAR ALLIANCE.
Over the last year, the teams within the company have been working intensively in order to upgrade the systems, to adjust the systems; they have worked in a very effective fashion, in cooperation with the people from STAR ALLIANCE, our sponsor, Lufthansa, and the other members of the alliance, as well.
Adjustments and differentiations have been made to 86 different systems, in order to homogenize any sort of passenger service provisions that are provided.
We now have the most modern reservation system, the Amadeus Altea System and we have a new system to serve passengers as well, in combination with its integration into the corresponding systems of the other STAR ALLIANCE members.
Thus, at the end of this effort, passengers from today onward will be able to use and to spend miles in a network that covers 181 countries. They have the possibility of selecting from about 21,000 flights daily, knowing and being certain that the basic rules of serving a passenger are the same among all members.
Our most frequent passengers, our Gold Card passengers from our Frequent Flyer program, our Flights and Bonus program, have access to 999 lounges throughout the world, independent of what company in the alliance they are traveling with. Accessibility and the choices that the passengers have are increasing.
Also, the possibilities for projecting Aegean in new markets far off and a new passenger public is now possible; and this is particularly important now, of course, for our passengers traveling with Aegean.
Something else which is very important as well is the fact that it is of great benefit to our company, because it increases our ability to extent our network to new destinations and new markets.
Dear colleagues, esteemed associates, our company is now the member of a world alliance. The protection of our company is already of an international nature. The character of our company, our character, our heart and the soul and spirit of our company and its people is Greek however.
Everybody in Aegean is independent, of course. Our course will be one of success and what we have done over the last ten years is proof of that and we are going to do whatever is necessary; we are going to do everything necessary in order to be able to succeed in the future as well.
I would like to thank you ever so much for your attention.

Mr. CHRIS KLICK:

Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Chris Klick from STAR ALLIANCE and I would like to thank Roula Saloutsi for the kind introduction of today’s events.
And before we come to the Q&A session, we would like to extend some gifts between the sponsor carrier, STAR ALLIANCE and Aegean. The exchange of gifts.

COORDINATOR:

I would like to call on Mr. Albrecht and Mr. Theodoros Vassilakis, please.
I would like to call the Chairman of Lufthansa, Mr. Mayrhuber.

Mr. MAYRHUBER:

It is the 28th star in a winning team.

Mr. VASSILAKIS:

This is a wishful thinking for Germany.
I am not supposed to speak this morning, but I just want to thank dearly and deeply all our people in Aegean, for the 11 years that they have supported the company, for their integrity, for their abilities, for their loyalty.
Thank you all because we had a long journey. Thank you very much.

COORDINATOR:

We are now ready for the questions from our friends from the press. I would like to say that since we have the honor to have 31 people here representing all of the members of the STAR ALLIANCE, I would like to ask you, please, when you pose a question to say to whom you are posing the question.
As far as I am aware, you are all receiving a simultaneous interpretation, so, any question can be asked in whichever language you prefer, English or Greek.
Thank you very much.

Mr. CHRIS KLICK:

…and believe it or not we and the CEOs on stage will not see much of you in the audience because of the screens here. Now it is much better.
So, please, now shoot your questions and please name your affiliation and your questions to any of our CEOs and Executives on stage.
Who wants to start? We have some microphone in the audience. Show your hands if you have a question to the Chief Executive.

Mrs. MANOUSOU:

My name is Margarita Manousou and I represent the leading trade magazine for the tourism industry.
And I would like to ask all of you if STAR ALLIANCE has any plans to help Greece with all the bad publicity that we have faced recently, so we can overcome all these problems.

Mr.  ALBRECHT:

Thank you. The question was to all. If I may express my opinion on your question. I think with this event, STAR ALLIANCE is not only helping, but STAR ALLIANCE is convinced about the values, about the future not only of this country, but the will of our members to participate in Greece, to bring tourists to Greece, to connect the world to Greece, and to connect Greece to the world.
With this event, there is only a  small show of what we as the international community are doing, the focus that we have set many years on this beautiful country, this reign force focus a year ago when we announced the membership of Aegean Airlines, and the focus of the last tries on the integration progress.
And today’s meeting is a confirmation from the commitment that the STAR ALLIANCE has in this country and supporting Aegean airways.
We have paying watching with lot and very high interest the successful development of Aegean airlines.
And I think all of you Greeks should be proud of such an example of an airline that has not only maintained its position but has grown in leadership, has grown its market position connecting Greece to the world in a very difficult environment.
We are all convinced, together we will be doing more and we are here to stay for many years in this market together with our new home carrier, Aegean.
Thank you.
Any more questions? On the back?

Mr. LINARDOS:

My name is Linardos Konstantinos, from television station of Crete.
I would like to ask Mr. Vasilakis, if Crete as a tourism destination and as tourism product, if it will benefit from this strategic alliance with the entry of Aegean into STAR ALLIANCE. If Crete will benefit. Thank you.

Mr. VASSILAKIS:

Undoubtedly yes, Crete will benefit.
First of all you are aware of the fact that Crete was one of the first and most important destinations when we begun to operate in 1989.
And now we are going to try to link Crete with direct flights to Europe. This is something difficult but not something impossible.
Crete is suffering from the fact that we do not have direct flights to Crete from Europe, expect for charter of flights. We are the only company which offers charter services as well to Crete with direct flights.
Of course with the new network that we have right now, through all of these companies we will have better linking of Crete with direct flights from Europe.

Mr. KAMPASIS:

I wanted to ask the following.
Aegean is now entering into the family of the STAR ALLIANCE.
When there is a merger with Olympic Airways in the future, would that mean that Olympic Airways will automatically become a member of the STAR ALLIANCE as well?
Because as I have understood it is possible that will be the aim of Olympic Airways that Aegean will bare as well in the future.

Mr. EFT. VASSILAKIS:

First of all, yes indeed we have signed agreements with Olympic Airways, but we have not received the necessary validation or rather confirmation from the competition committee in Brussels.
Aegean is entering into STAR ALLIANCE to become part of STAR ALLIANCE to grow within STAR ALLIANCE.
After a period of integration, now this new united form would have to become a member of STAR ALLIANCE if that it is to say Aegean Airlines merges finally with Olympic Airways.
But at this course this is something we have to discuss with STAR ALLIANCE. And also, we have to receive the OK from the Competition Commission as well.
And passengers that of course receive the benefits from Aegean, frequent flights, programs or in the future STAR ALLIANCE frequent flight programs.
Well, we will have to see what Olympic’s position will be in the future. If that indeed does happen, that particular merger.

Mr. FREDERICK:

Good afternoon. My name is Frederick. I am from Portugal. I would like to ask Mr. Jaan Albrecht if STAR ALLIANCE members ever think to load ticket prices, to be stronger against the low cost companies.
And I would like to ask Mr. Mayrhuber if this is a good example of German and Greek partnership, something that we didn’t saw in Europe last months. Thank you.

Mr. Jaan Albrecht:

I will try to offer some comments on your first questions.
STAR ALLIANCE does not set fares. It has to be said clearly that this is 100% in the territory of the individual carriers. What I can tell you is that watching the STAR ALLIANCE environment, each of the carriers has their own price and philosophies; and watching this, we can say that STAR ALLIANCE has always a very-very competitive product in the hands of the individual airlines, totally competitive with all the different spheres, with all the different ranges of what the industry is offering to the public.

Mr. Mayrhuber:

It is absolutely one of the many-many-many perfect examples of good cooperation between the country here, Greece and Germany.
We work since many years together; not only we, many 28 companies are here. More than 300,000 Greek people live in Germany. The communication between the two countries on tourism and also based on normal business is enormous and you are growing.
Despite all the discussions that you read out there, even in this year, both Aegean and Lufthansa on the German-Greek roots have grown and we will grow in the future.
So we will not read too many newspapers. We will do our business and go on and do what is necessary for the people; and you can help us there. Thank you.

Mr. Klick :

Over here, we have another question and we will accept two more in the interest of time.

Mr. IATROU:

Hello, Kostas Iatrou, from Aviation News.
Last year, the two other CEOs of the two other alliances say that they don’t want to expand in the same way, because they focus more on quality.
You have 28 already members. Does it mean you don’t have so much quality compared to the other alliances, or do you manage to have the good quality in your alliance?
And then, what is the roof? That means, sometimes there will be a lot of overlap between carriers and then they are not complimenting between each other. Can you commend on that, Jaan or someone else from the airlines? Thank you.

Mr. ALBRECHT:

STAR ALLIANCE focuses on the customer and what the customer wants from an international network is coverage, worldwide coverage, to offer them as many destinations as possible.
What the customer wants and expects from an alliance is the highest quality and the seamless quality to make their travel experience and the transfer between airlines as smooth, as seamless as possible.
And customers want the recognition of their loyalty. That is the result of what we are seeing today. The success of STAR ALLIANCE is based on each and every one of our 28 members. The customers want it and STAR is giving them the response.
We are not compromising in any other of these aspects, but we have the best product regarding worldwide coverage, regarding seamless service, highest quality service, and the recognition of the loyalty for our most loyal and most wanted passengers on board.

JOURNALIST:

from  Germany.
I have an additional question for Mr. Albrecht. With 29 members, when India joins as well, what do you see is the maximum number of members for STAR ALLIANCE. (…) what is the situation with Russia.

Mr. ALBRECHT:

Thank you. Yes, you have the figures right; 29 members by the end of this year.
Today, we are celebrating 28 members. It is not about size, again. It is about the customer. And the customers tell us, either corporate customers or individual customers, where they identify white spots in the world. Where do companies want or need to travel, where do individual customers need to travel.
We draft a very careful strategy – we call it the “white spot strategy,” to listen to the customers and to look for the right matches, for the right fit of possible airlines around the world.
The agreed strategy in style is Russia. We have a white spot in Russia; we have a white spot in India, which we are covering in the near future and we have lately been focusing on two markets, two huge potential markets in the world, which are Latin America and Africa.
We are talking to certain carriers in Latin America and in Africa, to offer these new connecting possibilities, coverage possibilities, with the highest quality collective seamless service around the network.
And I am sure that this will not be the last event that we are having today and to foster the implementation of the STAR strategy. Thank you.

Mr. CHRIS KLICK:

The last question? Anyone on the audience? We know that you wait for the one-on-one questions, and that is why we want to catch up on the public. Anyone?

JOURNALIST:

The CEO of Lufthansa invited governments to support the particular branch, air transport.
What is it that airlines request from governments, from which governments do they make requests and what is necessary in order for the situation to become more acceptable for the industry, for the air transport industry. What is demanded?

Mr. MAYRHUBER:

I want to make it very clear that we don’t ask for help, we don’t ask for subsidies. What we ask for is make the way so that the airlines can operate easier for us.
 The perfect example is that we still have more than 50 air traffic control units in Europe where we spoil CO2 emissions, but at the same time, the Commission and the member-states are seriously discussing the introduction of emission training certificates, which will help the traders, but not the economy. We must stimulate mobility and we will not have (…).
So our answer is to move on where we have opportunities to make the system much more efficient and you have the opportunity to turn the key in the right direction. And this is, I think, a very-very important example.
Because (…) customer reward be more ecologically sound in operation and have a clear emission at the open sky as we have it on the ground. Thank you very much.

COORDINATOR:

Thank you, Mr. Mayrhuber.
And that concludes the opening session of the questions and answers. As you may know, we will have chances to speak to the CEOs over at the tables, but now we want to serve our photo journalists, and therefore we invite the executives to come to the front for a photo.