Mr. Theodore Vassilakis, Chairman of Aegean Airlines, Speech. Aegean Star Alliance Joining Event Gala Dinner

Athens, 30 June  2010

Dear Friends and distinguished guests,

It is indeed a great honor to welcome you on behalf of Aegean Airlines and thank you all for being with us tonight.

A little more than a year ago STAR Alliance honored us by accepting Aegean as a future member.

This acceptance was the highest recognition of our company’s journey. For all of us in Aegean management, employees, shareholders,  it was  a seal of approval that our efforts are being recognized also on the international level.

We are proud that the world’s largest and most qualitative airline alliance, STAR, felt that Aegean as a representative of Greece had also something important to contribute.

We are proud that this membership came as a natural evolution of a proven   5 year cooperation with Lufthansa, which was clearly the first, very important step, in this direction.

Once again we thank all the members of STAR for their trust and belief in Aegean, and for their support in the integration process.

In the last twelve months, our   people have worked with focus, commitment and professionalism to implement the software upgrades, agreements and process changes that were required to meet all the alliance integration criteria and be able to provide the benefits and seamless service to customers that STAR is famous for.

I am proud to say that once again we achieved it in a short period of time and of course in a period where the challenges to our industry, our country and our company were probably more difficult than ever before.

I would like to thank all the integration team of Aegean and Star for the excellent work to bring us here today and be able indeed to offer, as of today, to our customers the Alliance benefits.

After a year of hard work we are now part of a family of 28 airlines, sharing a vision of facilitating global travel and having a presence in 1.172 airports and in 181 countries.
Our customers as of today will have faster and smoother transfers, can collect and redeem miles on the 4,050 aircraft of the alliance travelling over 1.172 Destinations.  Our best frequent travelers, our gold card customers, will have access to over 990 lounges, upgrades, awards and privileges around the globe. As of today their travel to all continents will be more comfortable, their queries and issues addressed to a great extent in a familiar uniform way as they will enjoy a truly Global end-to-end service.

It is no secret that Greece is today facing many challenges.  As a country and as a society we are only in the beginning of a very punishing process to re-establish our international credibility, our productivity, our belief in our own ability to re-start the development path of our country.

The current economic situation is clearly the most difficult since WW2 and the international image of our country has suffered.

Within this environment where the country and its people are called to make sacrifices, celebrations and social events feel out of place.

However, especially because we are in this environment it is more crucial than ever to project both internationally and locally that Greece, its companies, its people can produce products that are globally competitive in quality and efficiency.  Especially during this year where international organizations have been downgrading ratings and expectations for our country it is crucial to add,  a small,  but I believe very promising,  STAR on the map , where Greece is to show that  aviation services,  to  the country, are actually Upgraded.

 The message is clear:  new good things are still coming out of Greece, even now, and it may be happening in many more areas than you think: come visit the country and see for yourselves.

I am certain that Aegean’s people and culture   together with its brand new Airbus fleet will not only contribute to the image and network of the Alliance but also to the image of our country.

After all, tourism has long been Greece’s strategic industry and especially over the next few years it is one of the main sources of income we need and expect to bolster our economy.

It is important therefore that as our bilateral relationships within the Alliance develop we will be able to create even more attractive options for foreign visitors to our country, whether they are travelling for business or leisure. 

This is an important contribution to our country’s needs today and we are fully committed to sparing no effort to achieve it.

Of course our joining Star is not the only important recent development for Aegean. In February an agreement was signed that, once approved by the EC, and implemented will lead to the eventual merger of our company with the recently privatized Olympic Air. Like any merger this will also be a challenging project again in a difficult time.

However, again for us the priority and the message we want to deliver to our customers, our industry and our people is clear:

We have a proven track record,

 We now have the international Alliance,

 However we also need the synergies and the scale, to achieve the competitiveness that is required in the European and global market;

This is the objective of the agreement with Olympic, to create a National champion.

After all, Consolidation in the industry both in Europe and the US, between significantly larger players, is a powerful consistent trend and Greece with its very small 10M people home market cannot be an exception.

Dear friends,

Every step and every choice we take together is a step forward in the right direction, not always an easy one or even immediately successful, but always with a vision to build all the ingredients for the long term development of the company.

The assembly and support of a shareholder group that is, I dare say unique, in our country,
The commitment to customer service from the first day of our operation,
The development of a skilled and professional team,  which can deliver on the shareholder’s vision.
The sincere, open and close cooperation with our travel agent market, both in good and difficult times
The investment in our new Airbus fleet
The Joining of Star Alliance today
The future merger with Olympic

All guarantee that we have built the stamina to “fly” once again through the adverse environment we face today.

There will be challenges, difficulties, sacrifices and setbacks to be sure, but I am certain that 3 years down the line we will have an even stronger more efficient company that makes its people, customers, shareholders and last but not least Alliance partners proud to be part of our common journey.

Thank you all for being here today.