Swiss investment firm
Gemis Group, which is seeking to establish a business-only transatlantic carrier, is also planning to launch a
new Greek low-cost carrier called Blue Star Airlines which will operate out of Greece's second-largest city, Thessaloniki.
The start-up would operate flights with a fleet of
four Airbus A320s from Thessaloniki to eastern and western European destinations.
Former Swiss International Air Lines network department executive Navin Kodkani, who is working on both airline projects at Gemis, says: "
The operation should start in late October or the beginning of March next year."
He says that the company has not applied for an air operator's certificate (AOC) with the Greek authorities saying that it is "too complicated to get answers" from Greece at present because of the focus on the Olympic Games.
Blue Star would mirror low-cost carriers such as the USA's JetBlue Airways or Germany's Air Berlin, says Kodkani, adding:
"It would be a low-cost [airline] with a high-quality product."
He claims that the company has signed a memorandum of understanding with an undisclosed lessor for the A320s.
Gemis is simultaneously working on a Swiss-based all-business class carrier called PremiumAir which would serve US destinations from Zurich from late summer this year.
