Greece’s leading airline Aegean unveiled its new livery on Wednesday, as the stunning new A320neo aircraft was presented in Athens.
The aircraft was delivered to the airline in December and January and in total, Aegean will receive 46 A320neo family aircraft. This includes both A320neo and A321neo jets.
Aegean’s new livery features a blue tail, with the colour going all the way down to the fuselage. Most of the fuselage is painted in white, with blue Aegean titles and blue engines.
The three new aircraft will start flying in February, with the first aircraft to operate its first Athens-Munich flight on February 14.
Aegean Airlines CEO Dimitrios Gerogiannis said "we're making a fresh start at the dawn of the third decade, with a goal of investing 500 million dollars annually for the next 6 years," and added that "every new aircraft means new jobs, more opportunities for our people, more public revenue," which translates to "every new aircraft is equivalent to 70 additional jobs, 100,000 visitors and 80 million direct revenue in tourism."
Gerogiannis promises 24 months of creative innovation in terms of products and services. The new livery represents a new Aegean, he says, and a platform to expand and refresh services for better customer experience.
Airlines President Eftychios Vassilakis said that "we will continue into our third decade to invest and work, to deserve the confidence of our passengers, to act responsibly, in respect of the environment."
The A320neo aircraft are equipped with the new generation of Pratt & Whitney GTFTM engines and reduce CO2 emissions by 50 pct while reducing the noise footprint by 75 pct, and also reduce fuel consumption by up to 16 pct.
Aegean plans to use the A320neos on popular short- to medium-haul routes from Athens. The aircraft will begin service for the airline from tomorrow. Initial destinations include Barcelona, Frankfurt, Madrid, Marseille, Moscow, Munich, Nice, Tel Aviv, Valencia, Venice and Zurich, so far.
In total, the airline is set to receive 46 new A320neo and A321neo aircraft by 2025, totalling 6 billion euros in list prices. By July 2020 the company will receive a total of 6 new aircraft, has already received three so far, and will complete a fleet of 65. This will add 1.5 million seats, equivalent to 19 million seats per year in air traffic, and will expand its network to a total of 155 destinations and 44 countries in 2020.
A Greek company is "proceeding with one of the largest private investments ever undertaken in Greece," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said, welcoming Aegean Airlines' first of 46 new airbus carriers.
Mitsotakis also spoke of the company's achievements, including being named Europe's best regional company for nine consecutive years and emphasized that over the past 20 years some 141 million passengers have made it their airline of choice. The company has an excellent safety record and has essentially become Greece's national carrier, the PM noted.
