Olympic Air

Olympic Air S.A. (Greek: Ολυμπιακή) is a regional airline and a subsidiary of the Greek carrier Aegean Airlines. It was formed as part of the privatization of the former Greek national carrier Olympic Airlines, a company that carried the name Olympic Airways from 1957 to the beginning of the 21st century. Olympic Air commenced limited operations on 29 September 2009, after Olympic Airlines ceased all operations, the full-scale opening of the company taking place two days later on 1 October 2009. Its main hubs are Thessaloniki International Airport and Athens International Airport. Rhodes International Airport serves as a small secondary hub. The airline's headquarters are in Building 57 at Athens International Airport in Spata, and its registered seat is in Koropi, Kropia, East Attica. The airline uses the IATA code OA that it inherited from Olympic Airlines, and the ICAO code OAL. The airline was launched using the ICAO code NOA, but has been reported to have bought the OAL code used by Olympic Airlines. On 22 February 2010, Olympic Air and its main competitor Aegean Airlines announced they had reached an agreement to merge their operations, phasing out the Aegean brand. After an inquiry by the EU Directorate-General for Competition, it was announced on 26 January 2011 that the merger was blocked citing anti-competitive concerns. However, the sale to Aegean Airlines was approved by the EU Competition Commission on 10 October 2013, and the airline is now a subsidiary of Aegean Airlines. It operates 13 ATR 72, 3 ATR 42 aircraft and 2 Bombardier Dash 8, its former fleet of A320 and A319 aircraft having been sold during the various processes covered above.