Simera apo to reuters.
Olympic Pilots don't accept to work for Aegean
The pilots union at ailing state carrier Olympic Airlines, which Greece is rushing to privatize against an EU deadline, said on Tuesday it opposes a potential bid from private competitor Aegean Airlines.
Aegean, which competes with Olympic on domestic and some international routes, has announced plans to submit a non-binding bid mainly for Olympic's flight operations.
Aegean's shareholders include Theodore Vassilakis and the Laskaridis group of companies; businessmen George David; Dakis Ioannou; Vassilis Constantakopoulos; and Piraeus Bank.
"We won't accept Aegean as owner," said Grigoris Konstantellos, board member of Olympic's pilots' union Hellenic Airline Pilots Association (HAPA), which represents about 520 Olympic pilots.
Greece launched a fresh attempt to privatize Olympic and its ground handling and technical services in December.
The successor to debt-laden Olympic Airways faces a European Commission angered over nearly EUR200 million in unrecovered government aid. The commission has warned Greece that unless it recovers illegal government subsidies paid to Olympic, European Court of Justice action could start by mid-2005 to recover the money, threatening the possibility of any sale.
HAPA president Evangelos Sagos said his union did not oppose privatization, but suggested that if Aegean was successful it would use OA's slots for its own benefit and was not interested in Olympic's future or that of its employees.
Aegean Airlines flew more than 3.5 million passengers in 2004, a 25 percent increase from the previous year. The airline increased its flights to national and international destinations by 20 percent in 2004.
Sagos and Konstantellos criticized the latest sales attempt -- described by the Greek government as the last chance for the airline's survival -- for a lack of transparency in potential bidders future plans for Olympic.
"Today, they (potential bidders) are making non-binding bids for a sack of potatoes. Tomorrow, they will find out they have been bidding for half a sack of onions," Konstantellos said.
The pilots union said Olympic's fleet of aircraft, some of which have leases expiring in coming months, is stretched to cope with demand and will struggle to do so in the upcoming busy summer season.
"On March 26 we are entering the summer season with a fleet that is not capable of current (lower) winter demands," Konstantellos said, adding that the summer usually sees a 25 percent increase in demand.
Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis has said the government had received several bids for Olympic, founded by Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis and taken over by the state in 1975.
A finance ministry source said at least four companies have made non-binding offers. Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper recently reported German budget carrier DBA is among interested parties.
(Reuters)
