Aegean Airlines

Turkish Airlines announced on Friday that it aimed to carry 78-80 million passengers in 2020, mostly on international routes.

Greece's largest carrier Aegean Airlines flew 15 million passengers last year, a record for the 20-year old airline, and boosted its load factor, it said on Friday.
Aegean, a member of the Star Alliance airline group, said overall passenger traffic grew 7 percent in 2019 with its load factor increasing to 84.8 percent from 83.9 percent a year earlier.

Athens International Airport is posting record figures ahead of the invitation for the submission of binding offers for 30 percent of its shares.

AIA - whose official title is Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos - registered a historic record of 25.57 million passengers in 2019 - 1.4 million passengers or 6 percent more than in 2018.

Greece's largest carrier Aegean Airlines has expressed interest in the privatization of Croatia Airlines and submitted a non-binding bid, it said on Friday.

Aegean, a member of the Star Alliance group, said any decision on whether it would take part in the next phase of the state-owned Croatian carrier's privatization would be taken in the coming months.

Aegean Airlines has taken delivery of its first A320neo aircraft at the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France.

This is the first airplane from a new fleet of at least 46 A320neo and A321neo aircraft that the Greek carrier will collect by 2024, at a total cost of $6 billion.

Ann Abel, a travel columnist for the renowned U.S.-based Forbes magazine, has recently penned an article on one of Turkey's attraction spots, Bozcaada, dubbing it as a "secret Aegean island paradise."

Turkish fighter jets on Wednesday conducted a total of 70 airspace violations, which led to six overflights and five mock dogfights with Greek fighter jets.

The recent flare-up in tension over the Aegean is seen in Athens as a reaction to Greece's joint military exercise with Cyprus,  dubbed Steel Arrow, perceived by Ankara as a challenge in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Aegean Air is becoming a strategic partner in the Elliniko development with a 20-million-euro investment in Lamda Development's share capital and an agreement to promote the project at the site of Athens' former international airport.

The total number of deaths in Greece in 2018 outpaced the number of births for an eighth consecutive year, official data showed Tuesday, underscoring the nation's losing battle to raise its birth rate.

As Turkish jets continued to violate Greek air space over the Aegean Tuesday, Greek defense sources played down reports that Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar flew over the Aegean Sea in a jet trainer.