Aegean Airlines

History of Aegean Airlines

Aegean's roots go back to Aegean Aviation, which in 1992 became the first private Greek airline to hold an air operator's certificate and in 1994 joined the Vassilakis Group. Aegean Airlines was established in March 1999 and flew its first scheduled services that May, from Athens to Heraklion and Thessaloniki. Later in 1999 it took over Air Greece, and in 2001 it joined forces with Cronus Airlines.

The airline launched the first e-ticket by a Greek carrier in 2003, standardised on jets in 2004 and began a partnership with Lufthansa in 2005. Its first Airbus A320s arrived in 2007, the year it listed on the Athens Stock Exchange.

Aegean joined Star Alliance in June 2010, the same year its main shareholders agreed to combine Aegean and Olympic Airlines operations. It completed the purchase of Olympic Air in October 2013 with European Commission approval. In 2018 it ordered up to 42 A320neo family aircraft, with the first A320neo delivered in December 2019. Skytrax named it Best Regional Airline in Europe in 2025, a title Aegean says it has won 14 years in a row.

Fleet

Aircraft types in service as of 2026

Aegean's corporate fleet page lists 83 aircraft for the group, including Olympic Air: 20 A320neos, 14 A321neos, 28 A320s, 4 A321s, 12 ATR 72-600s, 3 ATR 42-600s and 2 Dash 8-100s. The page gives no as-of date. The neo aircraft come from the 2018 Airbus order for up to 42 aircraft, which Aegean described as the largest private investment in Greece. Turboprops serve the islands.

Network and hubs

Athens International Airport is Aegean's main hub, with a dense domestic network to the Greek islands and mainland and international flights across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. In its 2024 timetable the airline offered 161 destinations: 31 domestic and 130 international.

Olympic Air, part of the Aegean group, codeshares with Aegean and focuses on domestic and island routes. Aegean also operates from regional Greek airports, especially in the summer season.