US embassy cable - 05ATHENS2395

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 002395 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/13/2015 
TAGS: EAIR, ECON, GR 
SUBJECT: AEGEAN AIRLINES MAKES FINAL DECISION TO GO WITH 
AIRBUS FOR REFLEETING 
 
REF: A. ATHENS 1836 
 
     B. ATHENS 1851 
     C. ATHENS 1903 
     D. ATHENS 1999 
 
Classified By: AMB Charles Ries for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D) 
 
1.  (C) On Friday, September 9th, Aegean airlines informed 
Ambassador and Boeing representatives that its Board of 
Directors, despite Boeing's new offer (reftel D), had 
confirmed its previous decision to refleet with Airbus. 
According to shareholder Eftichios Laskaridis, the Board, in 
a meeting held September 1st, voted 14 to 1 in favor of 
Airbus (the sole dissenting vote coming from Laskaridis.) 
The only reason given for the decision was that going with 
Airbus provided "clearly visible novelty" to Aegean customers. 
 
2.  (C)  COMMENT:  Aegean's final announcement came, like all 
its other decisions during this process, as a surprise to 
everyone involved.  No one, including Boeing, had any idea 
that the Aegean Board had met in full on September 1st, or 
that a decision had been made.  In fact, Boeing and Post had 
spoken on the 6th about the situation, believing that Aegean 
was delaying its decision until after the September 14th EC 
ruling on the Olympic Airlines privatization deal.  Although 
the outcome was not what we wanted, it seems likely that our 
intervention did succeed in getting Boeing in for one last 
offer, and that Boeing's offer was sufficiently attractive to 
stir debate among the Board.  Post will continue to keep an 
ear to the ground for any hint of a connection between 
Aegean's refleeting decision and an EC decision on the 
Olympic Airlines privatization deal, due this week.  END 
COMMENT. 
RIES