Fleet
In August 2009 the airline's fleet consisted of 5 aircraft of the type Airbus and 17 Boeing aircraft. Olympic Airlines also owns 15 smaller propeller planes for domestic flights and shorter journeys.
History
Olympic Airlines was launched in 1957 by Aristoteles Onassis as Olympic Airways. First flights went to Paris and London. In 1966, the first nonstop flight was operated from Athens to New York with a Boeing 707-320.
The airline Olympic Aviation was established in 1971 for domestic flights, especially those going to the islands. It owns a fleet of small propeller machines and helicopters. The intention was to provide better transport to and between the islands as it was hard to land there with larger planes. After Aristoteles Onassis' son, Alexander, died in a plane crash in 1973, Onassis resold the airline to the Greek state and after great success in the 70s and 80s the airline began to have financial difficulties
Speedwings, a subsidiary of British Airways, was to take over management in 1999 to help the company recover from its debts. Only one year later however, it again gave up management and the airline was back in the hands of the Greek state. Macedonian airlines, Olympic Airways subsidiary, took over in 2003 and renamed the company
Olympic Airlines.
In 2003 the Olympic Airways Group was restructured and the subsidiary Macedonian Airlines SA was renamed Olympic Airlines SA. It took over international as well as domestic flights which had until then been operated by Olympiction.