Greek government to restructure and restart Olympic Airlines as Pantheon Airways

Thessaloniki, Greece: Under a restructuring plan, Greek flag carrier, Olympic Airlines, will be shut down and restarted as Pantheon Airways early next year. The Greek government proposes to convert it into a private company with foreign partners, after receiving European Commission approval.

Under the plan, Pantheon would continue operating Olympic's domestic network but would cut back on international routes and be about 65 per cent of its current size.

The restructuring plan would also involve elimination of several thousand jobs, according to minister of transport, Kostas Chatzidakis. He also said that Olympic is one of Europe's worst performing companies and cannot continue in its current form.

On Saturday, the Greek prime minister had vowed to defend the troubled flag carrier by cutting staff along with a voluntary redundancy programme as well as transfers to other state jobs.

The carrier has come under increasing financial pressure after a European Union court ruled in February that Greece had failed to recover some €130 million ($185 million) in illegal subsidies paid to the airline.

"Regarding Olympic, the aim is to (create) a robust and competitive company which will retain its logo and name but will be free of debts and problems with the European Union," prime minister Costas Karamanlis said.

The financially bleeding airline costs taxpayers at least €2.7 million ($3.8 million) a day. It employs around 8,500 workers.

Repeated efforts to restructure and privatize the company have failed.