Olympic Air startup flight schedule effective 29 September

Olympic Air, the new carrier established in Greece by Marfin Investment Group deployed today its startup schedule. Flights cover the period between 29Sep and 24Oct. The flight schedule for the winter season (effective 25Oct) will be announced through the company's new website. You can view the whole timetable here.

Routes that are abandoned are :
Domestic Network :
- Athens-Syros
- Athens-Kozani/Kastoria
- Thessaloniki-Rhodes (direct flight)
- Thessaloniki-Chania
- Thessaloniki-Heraklion
International Network :
- Thessaloniki-Istanbul
- From Athens to :
New York
Montreal/Toronto
Johannesburg
Kuwait/Dubai
Madrid
Manchester
Frankfurt
Munich
Dusseldorf
Stuttgart
Berlin
Moscow

The announced timetable requires at least 7 A319, 3 A320, 7 DH4 (one based at Thessaloniki Airport), 3 DH8 (1 based at Rhodes Airport) and 1 ATR42. It should be highlighted that the DH8s and the sole ATR will exclusively be used for PSO(Public Service Obligation) services.

There are also some flight numbering changes according to the following scheme :
- All PSO flights are renumbered (if different) between 000-099
- BEG renumbered from 385-388 to 397-398
- TIA renumbered from 117-118 to 317-318
- BEY renumbered from 313-314 to 463-464
- LCA renumbered from 329-338 to 431-438
- ALY renumbered from 327-328 to 487-488
- CAI renumbered from 325-326 to 485-486
- TLV renumbered from 301-302 to 451-452

Dash-8 Q400 registered SX-BIU (ex G-JECW) painted to full Olympic Air colors

Another Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 registered SX-BIU (ex G-JECW, c/n 4152) was painted to full Olympic Air colors. This is an ex Flybe plane that was ferried from BHX (Birmingham, UK) to NWI (Norwich, UK) for painting at 5/9/2009. A week later and having completed the painting job, on 12/9/2009, it was ferried from NWI to EXT for delivery preparations. Upon arrival at EXT it was reregistered to SX-BIU and did some engine run up tests.

Thanks to Keith Newsome for the following photo.

Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 / G-JECW / departing from NWI to EXT (photo 12/9/2009)


Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 / SX-BIU / after arrival at EXT, doing engine run up tests (photo 12/9/2009)

Olympic Air took delivery of first dry leased Dash-8 Q400 registered SX-OBA

Last updated 24/8/2009 12:10

Olympic Air took delivery of their first dry leased Dash-8 Q400 registered SX-OBA (c/n 4267). It was a Flybe plane (ex G-PTHA) not taken up which departed from Bombardier factory in Canada to RKV (Reykjavik, Iceland), then BHX (Birmingham, UK) and finally NWI (Norwich, UK), where it was painted in full Olympic Air colors from 19/8 until today. It departed today from NWI as NOA037P and is enroute to CFU (Corfu, Greece), where it will do a night stop before continuing tomorrow morning to ATH.


Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 / SX-OBA / getting ready to depart from CFU to ATH (photo 24/8/2009)

Thanks to Keith Newsome for the following photo.

Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 / SX-OBA / departing from NWI to CFU (photo 23/8/2009)

Olympic Air took delivery of the second wetleased Q400 registered G-FLBD today in Athens

Olympic Air took delivery of their second wet leased Dash-8 Q400 from Flybe, registered G-FLBD (c/n 4259). The plane was ferried on August 9th from BHX (Birmingham, UK) to NWI (Norwich, UK) for painting in full Olympic Air colors. Yesterday it was ferried back from NWI to BHX as BEE037P and was put directly into the Flybe hangar for final preparations. It departed this morning at 07:00Z as BEE031P and arrived in ATH at 17:15L. Two more Dash-8 Q400s are scheduled to arrive in ATH on wetlease from Flybe, G-ECOF and G-FLBE (see post)


Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 / G-FLBD / taxiing to OA hangar just after landing in ATH (photo 16/8/2009)

Thanks to Gordon Stretch (bhxflightguide.blogspot.com) for the following photo.

Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 / G-FLBD / arriving back in BHX, after being painted in NWI (photo 15/8/2009)

Olympic Air to take delivery of the first Q400 registered G-ECOE today in Athens

Last updated 5/8/2009 12:20

Olympic Air will take delivery of their first fully painted plane in ATH today. It is a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 registered G-ECOE. It is scheduled to arrive in ATH from SOU (Southampton, UK) at 20:00L. As we have written on July 23rd, it was painted in EIN (Eindhoven, Netherlands) and was ferried on 21/7/2009 to EXT (Exeter, UK) for final checks before being used by OA (see post). The checks were completed and the plane was ready to fly for Olympic Air. A team of Flybe's finest engineers has been formed and all together departed EXT this morning at 10:30Z. After departure from EXT and while in flight a door warning on the rear baggage bay door and a PTU fault indication forced the plane to divert to SOU. Since Flybe's finest engineers were onboard (in order to be based in Athens to look after the wet leased planes), they managed to fix the problems on the spot and continued the flight to Greece. This is the first (out of 4 agreed) plane that is wet leased from Flybe in order to assist Olympic Air at their start up period of August 2009 - September 2010 (see post). Photos of the plane in ATH will follow tomorrow, upon plane's arrival later tonight.


Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 / G-ECOE / parked in EXT, ready to be ferried to ATH (photo 31/7/2009)

Update 3/8/2009 19:50
Added the following photo of G-ECOE coming to land in ATH after a test flight to JKH (Chios, Greece)

Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 / G-ECOE / about to land in ATH, returning from a test flight (photo 3/8/2009)

Update 5/8/2009
The reason for diversion to SOU was identified and the post above was edited to include that.

First Dash 8 Q400 in full Olympic Air colors registered LN-WDV (to become G-ECOE)

Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 registered LN-WDV (c/n 4212) will be the first turboprop plane to fly with the new Olympic Air colors. It was an ex Flybe flying for Wideroe and since it recently returned to Flybe, it will be wet leased to Olympic Air for the start up period. It was painted in full Olympic Air colors in EIN (Eindhoven, Netherlands) and was ferried on 21/7/2009 to EXT (Exeter, UK) for final checks before being used by OA. It is going to be reregistered as G-ECOE and is expected to arrive in ATH by August 1st.

Thanks to Jeroen Stroes for the photo.

Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 / LN-WDV / parked in EIN, waiting to be ferried to EXT (photo 21/7/2009)