Olympic Airways

Hardly any airline logo is as closely tied to a country as the six colorful rings of Olympic. For more than half a century, Olympic Airways brought vacationers to the Greek islands, connected Athens with New York, Johannesburg and Melbourne, and was a piece of home in the sky for many Greeks abroad. It was founded by a shipping magnate of worldwide fame: Aristotle Onassis. Here you learn how the airline came about, which aircraft it flew, how to recognize it in old photos and why its end took so long.

Olympic Airways at a glance

Olympic Airways was the flag carrier of Greece. Its predecessor was the state-owned TAE (Greek National Airlines), which was formed in 1951 from the merger of several small companies and slid into financial trouble after only a few years. In July 1956, the Greek state reached an agreement with Aristotle Onassis: the shipping magnate took over the airline and in return received far-reaching exclusive rights in the country’s air traffic. On April 6, 1957, the company got its new name – Olympic Airways.

For decades, its home was the old Athens airport, Ellinikon, on the coast south of the city. When it closed in March 2001, Olympic moved to the new Athens Eleftherios Venizelos Airport. Important domestic destinations included Thessaloniki, Heraklion on Crete and Rhodes.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code OA: appeared before flight numbers, on tickets and on baggage tags.
• ICAO code OAL: the identifier for air traffic control.
• Callsign OLYMPIC: this is how the crews identified themselves on the radio.

Important for research: the codes passed to Olympic Air in 2009. If you see OA on a photo or tracker after October 2009, it therefore refers to the successor, not the state airline. How the two code systems work together is explained in the article on IATA and ICAO codes.

The history in stages

The Onassis years

Onassis ran Olympic like a prestige project. The contract with the state gave the airline a special position: for years it was practically the only provider of scheduled air service in Greece. At the same time, Onassis invested early in modern aircraft. The Comet 4B brought a jet aircraft in 1960, only a few years after its debut with major Western European airlines. The Comet flew in close cooperation with the British BEA, which operated the same type.

The step into long-haul followed in 1966: with the Boeing 707, Olympic connected Athens nonstop with New York – an important link for the large Greek community in the US. In the following years, Montreal and Chicago, among others, were added, with Nairobi and Johannesburg from 1968 and Melbourne via Bangkok and Singapore from 1972. Many Greeks abroad lived there as well.

The turning point came in January 1973: Alexander Onassis, the founder’s son, died after the crash of an aircraft in Athens. Onassis then lost interest in the airline, which was also suffering from high fuel prices and strikes. At the end of 1974, he withdrew from the contract, and from 1975 the Greek state took over. Onassis himself died in March 1975.

Decades as a state airline

As a state-owned company, Olympic kept growing but increasingly became a problem child. The fleet was diverse, personnel costs were high, and political interference in routes and staffing was part of everyday life. Time and again the state had to step in. With the EU single market for air transport, these payments came under the scrutiny of the European Commission: it classified several forms of aid as unlawful state aid and demanded repayment, and in 2008 the European Court of Justice found that Greece had not implemented an earlier recovery order.

At the same time, competition grew: from 1999, Aegean Airlines flew scheduled domestic service and quickly became a serious rival. For an overview of similar cases in Europe, see the article Big airline collapses in Europe.

The fleet: from the DC-3 to the A340

Olympic was an airline with a very broad fleet mix – from piston engines through the first jets to modern widebody aircraft. The most important types at a glance:

Type	Period at Olympic	Use	Spotter note
Douglas DC-3	1957–1970	Domestic and islands	Last aircraft handed back in May 1970
Douglas DC-6B	1958–1972	Longer domestic and European routes	Ten examples in service
Comet 4B	1960–1969	First jets	Cooperation with BEA
Boeing 707-320	from 1966	Long-haul	First 707 was named “City of Athens”
Boeing 720	after the 707	Medium- and long-haul	Taken over used from Northwest
Boeing 727-200	from 1968	Europe	Three engines at the rear
Boeing 737-200	from 1976	Domestic and Europe	Eleven new aircraft at once
Boeing 747-200	from the 1970s	Long-haul	Three more later from Singapore Airlines
Airbus A300	from the late 1970s	Europe and domestic	Ordered in 1978, supplemented by the A300-600R in 1991
Boeing 737-400	from 1991	Europe	Seven aircraft
Airbus A340-300	from 1999	Long-haul	Four aircraft as 747 replacements

Douglas DC-3 and DC-6B

The Douglas DC-3 was the workhorse of the early years and flew mainly domestic routes and to the islands. Olympic did not retire its last DC-3 until May 1970. For longer domestic and European routes, ten Douglas DC-6Bs joined from 1958 and stayed in service until 1972.

Comet, 707 and 720

The De Havilland Comet in the 4B version was Olympic’s first jet: four aircraft were ordered in 1959, service began in 1960, and it ended in 1969. The aircraft were operated jointly with BEA, and the partners partly swapped crews and aircraft. You can read more about the type in De Havilland Comet – the first jet airliner.

In 1966, the first Boeing 707-320 arrived, christened “City of Athens”. With it, the long-haul era began. It was supplemented by used Boeing 720s from Northwest. The story of the four-engine jet is told in the article on the Boeing 707.

727 and 737: the European fleet

From 1968, Olympic flew the three-engine Boeing 727-200 on European routes. In 1976, eleven brand-new Boeing 737-200s followed – the type many vacationers associate with Olympic, because it also served island airports. In 1991, seven Boeing 737-400s joined. How to tell the generations apart is shown in the article How to tell the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart.

Widebodies: 747, A300 and A340

For long-haul, Olympic relied on the Boeing 747-200: two aircraft arrived in the 1970s, and in 1984 three used ones from Singapore Airlines. On busy European and domestic routes, the Airbus A300B4 flew; four examples were ordered in 1978, and the A300-600R was added in 1991. In 1999, four Airbus A340-300s replaced the jumbos. For tips on telling them apart, see A330 or A340? and Boeing 747-100 to 747-8.

Olympic Aviation: turboprops for the islands

Many Greek islands have short runways. For that purpose, Olympic founded the subsidiary Olympic Aviation in 1971, which flew smaller aircraft – including the Japanese NAMC YS-11, the Shorts Skyvan, the Shorts 330 and the Dornier 228. Later, the ATR 42, ATR 72 and Dash 8-100 shaped island service. By the end, the Olympic Airlines fleet consisted almost only of these turboprops and a single A340. How to tell ATRs and Dash 8s apart is covered in How to tell turboprops apart.

The six rings: the trademark

Onassis wanted to use the five Olympic rings – after all, Greece is the home of the Olympic Games. But the International Olympic Committee insisted on its rights. The solution: a sixth ring. The usual interpretation is that five rings stand for the continents and the sixth for Greece.

The colorful rings on the tail became the identifying mark across decades and several paint schemes. They are therefore among the classics of legendary airline liveries. Olympic Air adopted the motif – which is why you still see the rings on Greek aprons today.

The end: from Olympic Airlines to Olympic Air

In the early 2000s, the state looked for a way out of the debt trap. In December 2003, the former subsidiary Macedonian Airlines took over flight operations and from then on appeared as Olympic Airlines. The idea behind the restructuring: operations would continue without the legacy burdens. The European Commission, however, saw this as further unlawful support and demanded repayment again. Several privatization attempts failed.

Only in 2009 did the clean break succeed:

• March 6, 2009: The state announces the sale of flight operations and the maintenance base to the Marfin Investment Group.
• Late September 2009: Olympic Airlines winds down regular flight operations.
• September 29, 2009: The last Olympic Airlines flight lands in Athens from Toronto via Montreal.
• October 1, 2009: Olympic Air starts flight operations.
• December 31, 2009: Olympic Airlines ends all activities.

Olympic Air took over the brand and codes, but not the debts. A merger with Aegean initially failed in 2011 because of the European Commission; in 2013, Aegean bought the company outright after all. Today, Olympic Air flies as a regional subsidiary, mainly on domestic and island routes.

How to recognize Olympic Airways

On old photos, Olympic is usually identified quickly thanks to the rings. The fine differences lie in the time period:

The registration helps with dating: a look at registry data tells you when an aircraft was registered and handed back. How that works is explained in the articles Understanding aircraft registrations and Spotting vintage aircraft in the sky.

Accidents

Over its long history, Olympic experienced several serious accidents. In December 1969, Flight 954, a DC-6B, crashed near Keratea close to Athens; 90 people died. In 1972 and 1976, two of the company’s YS-11s crashed, and in August 1989 an Olympic Aviation Shorts 330 hit a mountain on the island of Samos. An engine failure on a 747-200 during takeoff in Athens in August 1978, on the other hand, caused no fatalities.

Experiencing Olympic today

You can no longer spot Olympic Airways live. Still, tracking down its traces is worthwhile:

You can see the successor Olympic Air in Athens and on the islands, for example in Corfu, Kos or on Crete. Spectacular spots for island approaches are Kanoni at Corfu Airport and the runway end at Skiathos Airport. If you are interested in Greek aviation history, you can visit the Hellenic Air Force Museum in Tatoi – though that is about military aircraft.

Before you pull out your camera in Greece, be sure to read Plane spotting in Greece today and the background on the Kalamata case in 2001. The guide Plane spotting in Greece offers practical tips on airports and spots.

Common mix-ups

• Equating Olympic Airways and Olympic Air – Olympic Air is a separate company that started in 2009 and has belonged to Aegean since 2013.
• Thinking Olympic Airlines was a new startup – from 2003 it continued the state airline’s operations under a new name.
• Mistaking the six rings for the Olympic symbol – that has five rings; Olympic deliberately had one more.
• Confusing Olympic with Cyprus Airways – the Cypriot flag carrier Cyprus Airways also flew often to Athens but was a separate company.
• Attributing OA on new schedules to the state airline – since October 2009, the code has stood for Olympic Air.

Conclusion

Olympic Airways was more than an airline: it was Greece’s calling card in the sky, founded by one of the best-known businessmen of his time. Under Onassis it moved quickly into the jet age and onto long-haul routes, and as a state airline its fleet grew to include the 747 and A340 – and so did its debts. After years of EU proceedings and failed sales, the story ended in 2009. The six rings, however, keep flying at Olympic Air.