Hellenic Imperial Airways

[CL44]

I have read somewhere that Hellenic are looking in to getting some 737's (now there is an idea which might have worked in theor favour last year)!

You never know, we may see them back at BHX sooner rather than later. I wonder if they will do a better job of advertising the service (if they feel brave enough to come back here that is)?

 

[Hassaan]

They should lease something like a 767 or 757, or even 737 or A330 or A340. It's not possible to fill up a 747 of Hellenic because of low demand.

 

[CL44]

Well, well. Look which Airline has crawled from the woodwork. I have seen a report that Hellenic are now looking at doing a service to LGW with A340's (4 x ex GF frames apparently). There is also a possibility of a service to NYC. I hope for their sakes that they have thought this out properly this time. From the timescales mentioned it would appear that the service might be operating as soon as the end of this month. So far I have not seen anything offering cargo rates from LGW-ATH and it would appear that their fares are a bit more expensive than the competiton, so I am not holding my breath for a good result here folks. Still not seen anything further about smaller aircraft from them (which would offer better returns on the European services if nothing else). Time will tell!

 

[Aviador]

I haven't seen anything about this airline for a while on here. Is the airline still operating into into Birmingham?

(CL44 - I've copied your post into the Gatwick forum)

 

[CL44]

From what I can gather they only operated twice into BHX (and neither flight was full on a classic 747!). Perhaps if they had offered flights to the spotters for cheap rates they may have made more of an impact on the market.

I am not holding my breath on this service lasting more than a couple of flights to be honest.

 

[Aviador]

Well it was definitely set up with the wrong aircraft type for starters and the spotters would have dried up eventually.

I would have thought the demand existed in the Birmingham area for scheduled flights to Athens with the right aircraft type of course. I'm not convinced Hellenic Imperial Airways did their homework when they decided the Boeing 747 was suitable for the job previously. Even onward flights to Jeddah could have been done with a smaller aircraft type, or by connecting through Athens.

 

[CL44]

Has anyone heard about Hellenic recently? I still keep seeing different forums going on about how their fares are more / less expensive (you delete whichever option you would like) than XYZ airways. The point is I am still unaware of them offering regular flights to anywhere on their destination list. Should we have a competition of "Spot the Hellenic Imperial Airways flight". I don't know what the prize could be... perhaps a photo of the flight whilst parked in Athens or at the destination?

 

[CL44]

I have read in Airline World that Hellenic appear to have got their hands on a B737 (cannot remember which series). Is it possible they may go back to trying out a BHX flight? Or are they still considering LGW? Has anyone heard any rumours about this Airline since the middle part of this year?

 

[Hassaan]

It was another case of the odd-ball airline. It was hardly going to work on a 747 because I don't think we even had a regular service to Greece at the time so we didn't have a clear enough idea as to what the loads were like, but previously they have used smaller equipment.

It could work if they try again with smaller equipment, and starting out small before building up (number of flights mainly).