Aegean Airlines, Greece’s flag carrier, has entered into a strategic partnership with Volotea Airlines, a Spanish low-cost airline, following a European-wide trend of consolidation and expansion in the commercial aviation industry.
Aegean—the largest Greek airline by total number of passengers carried, by number of destinations served, and by fleet size—announced yesterday, Monday, September 3, that it had agreed to participate in the Spanish carrier’s capital share increase.
Market pundits consider the move significant as, apart from opening up new destination routes for the Greek flag carrier, it also creates the conditions for an even larger capital share rise ahead of Volotea’s plan to go public in the next two to three years.
The deal will allow the two Mediterranean-based carrier partners to map out a course based on healthy finances amid an increasingly competitive industry in Europe following the mega-deal between German Lufthansa and Italian ΙΤΑ.
During a press conference in Athens, on Monday, Aegean Airlines Chairman Eftichios Vassilakis, CEO Dimitris Gerogiannis, and Volotea’s founder and CEO Carlos Munoz presented the two companies’ goals, which include reinforcing the growth potential as well as gradually creating synergies between the two carriers and enhancing their competitiveness in the Southern European market.
Source: tovima.com
