About 6 months ago, after a frantic private takeover, it became known that some of the routes of Greece's national carrier, Olympic Airlines, would be in doubt. This piece of news had consumers wondering what's going to happen to the airline after September 30, 2009, the date on which the airline ceases operations to New York, even while roughly 1500 passengers still hold return travel tickets after that date.

It's been known for quite some time that Olympic was struggling as a company, throwing their business up for sale to the highest bidder in the latter part of 2008. A bubble of hope came last March by way of top competitor Aegean Airlines when they submitted an offer to buy the ailing carrier. Aegean pulled back when, Marfin, a private Greek investment group successfully outbid them and purchased the airline in a deal worth €177 million, effectively making it a private company for the first time in its 35-year history. While Marfin was able to keep the business going they're giving no official word about the airline's operations (for New York or otherwise) past the deadline, and despite harried calls by passengers, no information is being given out from their call center.

So while it's advisable to consider alternate options, if you want to fly into and out of Athens on Olympic, you can still choose to use them. I would recommend reading this post on whether or not to take advantage of flights on airlines whose futures are in doubt. If the prices tempt you, which is understandable as they are quite cheap for some short haul flights, perhaps wait a couple weeks until after the deadline to see if any cataclysmic damage appears to their business model.

According to their website, Olympic's Icarus Frequent Flyer Program will be terminated. If you have miles in the program, better use 'em quick, as they'll be worthless after Sept 30th!

** Olympic Airways timetable circa 1962 courtesy of Björn Larsson