Etihad Airways marks five years in Greece as partnership with Aegean Airlines takes off

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and codeshare partner Aegean Airlines, are celebrating five years of Etihad Airways’ non-stop services between Athens and Abu Dhabi, and the start of Aegean’s new direct flights to the UAE capital.

Etihad Airways commenced operations to Athens in June 2009, and since then has carried almost 400,000 guests and nearly 3,700 tonnes of cargo on the route.  To meet rising demand, the airline will increase its current daily Athens-Abu Dhabi services to 10 per week on 2 July.

For the summer 2014 season Etihad Airways will also deploy a wide-body Airbus A330-200 aircraft on the Athens-Abu Dhabi route, returning to Airbus A320 operations for the winter season.*

Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways’ Chief Commercial Officer, said: “Year on year, our Athens route has exceeded our expectations and we are delighted to build on this success by adding more capacity to and from Greece, and officially mark our codeshare partnership here in Athens with Aegean, Greece’s largest commercial airline.

“From today, Aegean will operate four weekly services to our home and hub, Abu Dhabi, providing convenient onward connections for guests to destinations on the Etihad Airways network right across the globe.^†

“Etihad Airways will place its EY flight code on these new Aegean services, and, focussing on our guests in the travel and tourism industry, the business community and governments, we look forward to further cementing the strong ties between Greece and the UAE.”

Dimitris Gerogiannis, Aegean Airlines Managing Director, said:  “We congratulate Etihad Airways on the fifth anniversary of its operations to Greece, and we are delighted to be working together to launch our direct flights to Abu Dhabi.

“We have taken the strategic decision to enhance our presence in the wider Gulf area and through our partnership with Etihad Airways, we are now in the position of offering enhanced connection possibilities and premium services to our clients.

“Aegean strongly believes that through partnerships like the one we inaugurate today with Etihad Airways, that we will continue our active support for the tourism industry of our country.”

Aegean Airlines will operate the new Athens-Abu Dhabi service with a 168-seat Airbus A320 aircraft.  The airline is also allowing Etihad Airways to place its EY flight code on Aegean services to 16 destinations across Greece.^††

Alexandros Aravanis, Athens International Airport Chief Operations Officer, said:  “The Middle East market continues its dynamic development, having demonstrated strength and potential even during the economic crisis. We are delighted to welcome Aegean Airlines’ entrance to the Athens-Abu Dhabi route, in codeshare partnership with Etihad Airways.

“This significant collaboration offers more options on the Athens-Abu Dhabi route for passengers travelling for business or leisure purposes, while also enhancing connectivity out of Athens to destinations beyond Abu Dhabi to Asia, the Far East and Australia.

“We welcome this partnership and wish both airlines the very best – to Etihad Airways which is celebrating five years of direct services between Athens and Abu Dhabi, and Aegean Airlines, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary.”

 

Combined Etihad Airways and Aegean Athens-Abu Dhabi summer schedule

Flight #	Origin	Departs	Destination	Arrives	Frequency	Aircraft
EY091	Abu Dhabi (AUH)	09:30	Athens (ATH)	13:25	Daily	A330*
EY090	Athens (ATH)	14:30	Abu Dhabi (AUH)	20:10	Daily	A330*
EY099	Abu Dhabi (AUH)	02:50	Athens (ATH)	07:05	Wed, Fri, Sun	A320
EY098	Athens (ATH)	08:15	Abu Dhabi (AUH)	13:55	Wed, Fri, Sun	A320
A3943	Abu Dhabi (AUH)	02:00	Athens (ATH)	06:00	Mon, Tue, Thu, Sat	A320
A3942	Athens (ATH)	19:00	Abu Dhabi (AUH)	00:30 + 1	Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun	A320

* Etihad Airways’ two-class Airbus A330-200 wide-body aircraft will operate daily from Athens to Abu Dhabi between 1 June 2014 and 30 September 2014.  The route will be operated by an Airbus A320 aircraft until then.

^† Aegean has placed its A3 flight code on Etihad Airways-operated services between Athens and Abu Dhabi, and beyond to Bahrain (BAH), Perth (PER) from 15 July, Melbourne (MEL), Sydney (SYD), Kuwait (KWI) and Johannesburg (JNB).

^{† †} Etihad Airways has placed its EY flight code on Aegean-operated services beyond Athens to 16 Greek destinations including  Alexandroupolis (AXD), Kerkyra (CFU), Chania, Crete (CHQ), Kefalonia (EFL), Heraklion (HER), Ioannina (IOA), Chios (JKH), Mikonos (JMK), Santorini (JTR), Kos (KGS), Kavala (KVA), Lemnos (LXS), Mytilene (MJT), Rhodes (RHO), Thessaloniki (SKG), Samos Island (SMI).  In addition, Etihad Airways has placed its EY flight code on Aegean services between Athens and Abu Dhabi (AUH), Madrid (MAD), Sofia (SOF), Larnaca (LCA), and Prague (PRG).

 

Note to editors:  Etihad Airways employs 129 Greek nationals across the globe, including 52 cabin crew and 37 pilots.  The Athens office is managed by Etihad Airways General Manager for Greece, Dimitrios Karagkioules, and his team of 12 sales and marketing staff.

Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways’ Chief Commercial Officer, and Dimitris Gerogiannis, Aegean Airlines Managing Director celebrate Etihad Airways’ five years of Athens-Abu Dhabi services and the start of Aegean’s direct flights from Athens to Abu Dhabi.

Ioanna Papadopoulou, Athens Airport Marketing Director, Peter Baumgartner, Etihad Airways’ Chief Commercial Officer, and Dimitris Gerogiannis, Aegean Airlines Managing Director mark Etihad Airways’ five years of Athens-Abu Dhabi services and the start of Aegean’s direct flights from Athens to Abu Dhabi.

About Etihad Airways

Etihad Airways began operations in 2003, and in 2013 carried 11.5 million passengers. From its Abu Dhabi base Etihad Airways flies to 103 existing or announced passenger and cargo destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas. The airline has a fleet of 98 Airbus and Boeing aircraft, and more than 220 aircraft on firm order, including 71 Boeing 787s, 25 Boeing 777-X, 62 Airbus A350s and 10 Airbus A380s. Etihad Airways holds equity investments in airberlin, Air Seychelles, Virgin Australia, Aer Lingus, Air Serbia and Jet Airways, and is seeking regulatory approval to invest in Swiss-based regional carrier Darwin Airline. For more information, please visit: www.etihad.com

About AEGEAN

Aegean is Greece’s largest airline providing since 1999, full service, premium quality, short and medium haul flights. In 2010 Aegean joined the Star Alliance, the strongest airline alliance worldwide.  As a result of the acquisition of Olympic Air on October 23, 2013; Aegean passengers now have increased frequencies and connections to many more Greek and international destinations. In 2014 the company plans to operate approximately 100,000 flights and to offer more than 13 million seats, close to 2.5 million more seats than during 2013. Following the addition of 5 more Airbus A320/321 aircraft the fleet in 2014 is made up of 50 aircraft. Aegean has a total of 8 aircraft bases, connecting Greece with 87 international destinations in 32 countries as well as flying to 33 domestic airports. Total traffic of both companies reached 8.8 million passengers in 2013.  Aegean has been honored with the Skytrax World Airline Award, as the best European regional airline for 2013. It is the fourth time that the company has received this distinction, the previous being in 2012, 2011 and in 2009. Aegean has recently launched its new iPad app providing passengers with services and useful information about their trip wherever they may be. This is in addition to the services available on www.aegeanair.com, and the mobile site, mobile.aegeanair.com. Aegean fans may follow the company via social networks and channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

For more information contact:

Niall Doheny, Etihad Airways Corporate Communications

Email: ndoheny@etihad.ae, Tel: +971 2 511 1058

 

Stavroula Saloutsi, Aegean Airlines Public Relations & Press Director

Email:  saloutsi.stavroula@aegeanair.com, Tel:  +30210 6261888