Aegean Airlines added another link in a long chain of business agreements aiming at its further development.
The current president and main shareholder of the No.1 airline in Greece announced a few days ago its decision to invest in the Spanish airline company Volotea, one of the leading low cost airlines in Europe. The decision was welcomed by the market and helped Aegean’s stock market value to return above the psychological threshold of 1 billion euros.
Its founder Eftychis Vassilakis, who lived through the landmark acquisition of Olympic Air at the beginning of the previous decade, started a series of mega deals in 2018, when he made the largest private investment in the country, amounting to 5 billion dollars. It concerned the acquisition of 30+12 Airbus aircraft of the new generation A320neo, the receipt of which began in 2019.
At the same time, a deal was reached with Pratt & Whitney for the selection of the engines that will equip the aircraft of the renewed fleet.
The next year, he proceeded with the issuance of a bond loan, amounting to 200 million euros. The bond had a duration of seven years and a yield of 3.6% (approximately as much as the Greek government borrowed at that time).
The Covid period followed, with the management of Aegean receiving a state aid package of 120 million euros and at the same time implementing a share capital increase of 60 million euros. The repayment of this informal loan in November 2023, with the payment of 85 million euros to the public, definitively healed the wounds of the pandemic and allowed the company to spread its wings again.
In the meantime, Aegean had announced the collaboration with CAE for the creation of the first Flight Simulator and Crew Training Center in Greece, while it had also invested 140 million euros in the construction of the first Aircraft Maintenance Services Center.
The company also had a three-year presence at charter flight start-up Animawings, which ended last February with the sale of 51% to the other shareholder, the Romanian Memento Group. We now have to see the next steps of the administration, which may have new surprises in store for us in the long run.
