There are no longer any long-haul flights from Greek carriers since the demise of Olympic Airways. Aegean Airlines now intends to enter this segment with the Airbus A321LR aircraft.

Boeing 747s from Olympic Airways were once regular guests in New York and other cities. But the “national carrier” has gradually shrunk. Even the “restart” as Olympic Airlines did not bring a solution. Today's Olympic Air is a subsidiary of Aegean Airlines and only operates as a regional airline, mainly in domestic traffic. The parent company itself has so far stayed away from long-haul traffic.

It has now been communicated that an existing order has been converted. This means that Aegean Airlines will take delivery of four Airbus A321LRs. These are scheduled to be delivered to Greece's largest airline in 2026 and 2027. The company wants to use the new additions to open up additional markets, particularly in the south and southeast of Greece. The aim is for routes with flight times between four and 7,5 hours.

Aegean Airlines wants to offer fewer than 180 seats on board, divided into business and economy class. Passengers want to be provided with individual screens in the seats and a WiFi connection that will be implemented via satellite. Aegean Airlines promises that it will offer a product comparable to that of competitors in Widebodies.

Among the possible destinations: The Greek carrier named Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai, Bahrain, Doha, Muscat, Lagos, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Delhi, Mumbai, Almaty and other destinations as possibilities that are within the range of the Airbus A321LR. But no final decision has been made yet.

“We believe in the great opportunity for Aegean and for our country that lies in the development of markets outside the EU, either in the Gulf, Africa or regions of Asia, which, given our location on the southeastern edge of Europe, with a special version of the A321neo could be operated with extended range,” said Aegean boss Dimitris Gerogiannis. “We also recognize that to effectively represent Aegean’s service values ​​to our passengers in these markets, we need a cabin with significantly more comfort and experiences. We are investing significantly in extending the range and providing a completely new level of comfort for a sub-fleet of initially four aircraft, to give our crews the right tools to best represent Aegean's values ​​in these longer flight times markets. This is another big step in expanding our reach and capabilities and we look forward to welcoming our passengers from these markets to this new level in the coming years.”