Olympic Airlines up for bids

The Greek ministers of finance and transport said Thursday that five companies had made bids for Olympic Airlines (OA), the loss-ridden Greek carrier, successor of long-troubled Olympic Airways, which is being privatized.

Bidders include; private Greek operator Aegean Airlines, OA’s chief competitor on domestic routes; German low-cost operator Deutsche British Airways (DBA), along with an unnamed partner in a bid.; British operators Klesch, a Greek-American consortium titled Olympic Investors, and the Dutch investment fund Sure Estates, reports AFP.

The evaluation and negotiation process is expected to take two months.

“We hope to reach a deal to save Olympic, as time is pressing, and so is the European Union,” the minister said.

After heavy losses Olympic was split into two companies in December 2003.  Olympic Airlines, which inherited the group’s flight operations and the second company, Olympic Airways Services for aircraft maintenance, baggage handling, cargo and training.

The European Commission has taken Greece to court over its failure to recover by February 2003 some 41 million euros in restructuring aid funnelled to Olympic, and over 100 million euros in other forms of aid.