Aegean Airlines has officially joined Star Alliance as the network's 28th member, after a joining ceremony in Athens.
With the addition of Aegean, the Star Alliance network to, from and within Greece now covers more than 1,500 weekly flights to 69 destinations in 27 countries.
Jaan Albrecht, CEO Star Alliance said: "For alliance members, Greece is an important travel market where Athens can be built into a major hub airport with growing connection traffic.
"It has already become an important player in the Southeast European area and we fully expect entry into Star Alliance will support its further development."
With its geographic position in the eastern Mediterranean, the airline will act as the main southeastern access point into the European Union for Star Alliance.
Theodore Vassilakis, Chairman of Aegean Airlines said: "Our customers will enjoy recognition, loyalty benefits and end-on-end global service that Star Alliance is renowned for.
"At the same time, there will be a ‘star' on the map, showing that services and access to Greece have been significantly upgraded."
The airline was accepted as a future member in May 2009, taking 12 months to complete the integrations and systems upgrade process.
Aegean is currently in the process of merging with fellow Greek carrier Olympic Air.
Under the plans, the Aegean brand was set to disappear from the skies, with all flights to come under Olympic Air, but with the acceptance of Aegean into Star Alliance this seems less likely.
www.aegeanairlines.com www.staralliance.com