Greek carrier assessing east European market
Aegean Airlines is looking to expand its services to Russia and other countries in East Europe.
Gianni Matassa, the Greek carrier's commercial director, told ABTN it was now assessing flights to Moscow "very carefully."
The airline already runs charter operations for leisure travellers from Russia.
Mr Matassa said: "We also run services to Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. But our top priority is the Moscow market. We are looking at this very carefully.
"The other countries in East Europe we are looking at are Serbia, Hungary and the Czech Republic."
Mr Matassa said his airline also wanted to start a two or three times a day service between Athens and Istanbul but the lack of a bi-lateral agreement between Greece and Turkey prevents this.
Aegean, which has risen from a private airline to an award winning international carrier in just over ten years, announced last December it planned to start new, year round services from Athens to Brussels, Berlin, Barcelona and Vienna as well as a seasonal service to Venice this summer.
This will give the airline 18 international destinations as well as 16 domestic destinations from Athens and seven from Thessaloniki.
Mr Matassa, a veteran of 20 years' service with Alitalia before joining Aegean last year, put the success and rapid expansion down to customer service.
"What we have been working on most of all in the ten years of Aegean Airlines has been meeting the demands of the passengers. We have always been careful to satisfy their needs. That is the key factor."
He said building a successful domestic base was the springboard to launching international routes.
Services to London Stansted and Paris began last year and there are now three a day to the UK capital while flights to and from the French city enjoy loads of up to 80%.
Another factor in its rise, Mr Matassa believes, is its courting of the business traveller.
From the start Aegean went out to attract both leisure and business travellers. There is, inevitably, a larger number of leisure travellers during the summer when Aegean runs seasonal flights to many of the small islands.
For the whole year, the balance is 60-40 in favour of leisure.
"We are the only domestic airline offering business class. It is available on our 12 a day flights between Athens and Thessaloniki (Greece's premier business route) and to the bigger islands like Rhodes and Crete.
"The aim is to make Aegean the airline of choice for the business traveller. So we offer a first class service on board with hot meals. There is a separate bus at Athens for business class travellers to the terminal and there is a fast track at Stansted to get them through the airport quickly."
The airline is also offering companies in the UK including banks, pharmaceutical companies and SMEs "very attractive" corporate deals.
The airline also has strong codeshare relationships with Lufthansa, TAP and, from this year, with Brussels Airlines.
Mr Matassa is meeting with TAP executive next week to strengthen relations with the Portuguese carrier.
But if the airline has expanded rapidly, it is, for the moment at least, not planning to start long haul routes.
"We have codeshares with Lufthansa which give us connecting flights at Frankfurt and Munich.
"Long haul requires a degree of know how that we must first achieve. Long haul is not part of our strategy just now but you never say never."
www.aegeanair.com