Eftychios Vassilakis: The big bet of the next 10 years for Aegean Airways

Aegean Airlines is entering the coming decade with an ambitious vision: to “wean” itself from its family and “shareholder” roots as a successor state in management and to remain an independent “functional system” of the Greek economy that will continue to grow without necessarily identifying with specific people and families.

This was the central message of the company’s president, Eftychios Vassilakis, in relation to how he envisions the coming decade for Aegean, as expressed in an interview he gave to SEV’s InnovativeGreeks Talks. “It is a difficult challenge that not many have succeeded in,” he emphasized.

The goal of a self-governing company is contributed by the effort to maintain its basic philosophy that originated from the late Theodoros Vassilakis regarding the quality of services but also the “pure cooperative behavior,” which has now become a culture at Aegean.

“Dimitris Geroyiannis [CEO of Aegean] and I have served this culture and are making efforts to maintain it through seminar procedures, etc. This way, the company will become self-governing, of course having a CEO, but with its own production that will not necessarily have a relationship with any of its shareholders and their families,” said Mr. Vasilakis. He added: “I would personally feel like a failure, regardless of size, if I could not leave the company with this culture strengthened.”

What Aegean wants in the next 10 years is still “to be able to provide much greater added value,” stressed Mr. Vasilakis. The significant investment of 140 million euros in the technical base at El. Venizelos airport with third-party maintenance procedures is moving in this direction. “This will diversify our contribution structure, open up new avenues for staff development, and show that tourism and transport can be linked to more complex and “industrial” activities, increasing the country’s economic figures.”

New international destinations

Expansion into new international markets is also on the agenda. Within the next two years, the company plans to operate in India, once the new A321neo LR aircraft join its fleet. These aircraft will offer a completely different flight experience (both in business and economy class) and will cover routes of up to 7.5 hours.

A great desire of the Aegean chairman is to add long-distance destinations, which, however, involves risks. “The first characteristic we have developed is our ability to survive. We do not want to risk one for the other,” he said.

The next challenges for Greek tourism

The president of Aegean highlighted as a top challenge for Greek tourism the preservation of the authenticity of the product, the experiences, and the regions of the country, in times of large tourist volumes. We must pay attention, he said, to how we will transform the large volumes into duration, quality, and revenue per visitor with diffusion throughout the country.

At the same time, he referred to the top challenges for the next 10 years in Greece, which, according to him, will be...

The need for a transition from a US system of influence to a more multipolar world, where regional powers will also play an essential role in developments so that Greece can balance between the powers.
Further development in 3-4 sectors outside of tourism and shipping, such as the pharmaceutical industry, logistics, construction, and agriculture.
Addressing the demographic problem, possibly with workers from abroad, so that the country has the advantage of labor without the disadvantages that are created and we have seen in other countries. The solution has not been found, but "we cannot avoid it", as he said.
The future of flights lies in synthetic fuels

Regarding the energy issue in flights, Mr. Vasilakis expressed the assessment that synthetic fuels will be used in flights within a 15-year time horizon. If a production technology is created or if appropriate investments are made with funding from airline revenues for the carbon emissions they produce, sufficient synthetic aviation fuels can be produced quickly and in sufficient quantities, ensuring a minimal environmental footprint.

It is noted that just yesterday, the European aviation industry sent a message to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, for the creation of a specific Aviation Strategy with an emphasis on sustainability and ensuring Europe's competitiveness in the world. Representatives of the organizations [A4E, ACI EUROPE, ASD, CANSO Europe, and ERA] presented in Brussels a series of proposals aimed at facilitating the industry's transition to zero emissions, with measures such as...

a European strategy for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) with cost-reduction mechanisms and large-scale production
the integration of aviation into the Clean Industrial Deal and the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP), strengthening its strategic role in Europe's economic future
the upgrading of support for research and innovation, supporting initiatives such as Clean Aviation for next-generation aircraft technologies and SESAR for improved air traffic management.

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