Two new international destinations from Athens and seven new direct domestic flights from regional bases, the airline's management announced at the beginning of last week.
In particular, from the beginning of the new year, Aegean will connect Athens with Iraq, with direct flights from Athens International Airport "Eleftheros Venizelos" to Erbil International Airport starting on February 23 and operating twice a week (Wednesday and Sunday). Shortly afterwards, namely on April 14, 2025, the airline will also start direct flights from Athens to Baku (Heydar Aliyef) in Azerbaijan. Every Monday and Friday, with Airbus 320neo aircraft.
The inclusion of Baku in the airline's destinations was more or less expected, normal according to the previous planning, taking into account that, in essence, it is a reactivation of an older route to the capital of Azerbaijan. I recall that it was preceded by the strengthening of destinations to Saudi Arabia and the UAE (with Abu Dhabi) in order to cover the eastern side.
However, the announcement of Erbil made a sensation, and this is because it is the first destination that enters the monitoring of a Greek airline for the first time, and even more so as it concerns the main (out of a total of) three international destinations in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq. The additional interest? The connection from/to Athens is not to Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, but specifically to this region. The issue of a Greece-Iraq connection was not raised in any of the administration's briefings, nor was it implied as a potential one. Hence the initial surprise on the part of some market players. That is why, as an insight, I thought I would make a round, discussing it with a diplomatic agent, three businessmen with aspirations for the region, and a government official (of the State Department).
What I took away was that this was a well-prepared action by Aegean, in consultation with the political leadership, as a result of the rapid developments in the region. In fact, the very next day (Tuesday), the official site of Erbil International Airport added the name of the largest Greek airline to the (future) connections (from 23 February).
I will be more detailed. The official of Lt. Ex. pointed out to me how important it is to do "flag"promotion"—referring to both the name of the airline/Aegean and the colors/"blue and white"—in" contrast to the "soft power" policy implemented by Ankara through Turkish. The same executive was one of the initiators of the establishment of a Consulate General in the Kurdish region/Northern Iraq in the summer of 2016. A Trade Affairs Office had been operating in the autonomous region for a long time before, while representatives of Iraqi Kurdistan had been invited and participated in the International Conference on Religious Pluralism in the Middle East held in Athens.
At the same time, as the businessmen explained to me, in recent years some actions have been taken to promote either Greek companies or products. The Panhellenic Association of Technical Companies, food-food companies (Iraq Agrofood e.t.c.), etc., had explored the possibility of a "Greek presence." Therefore, a primitive infrastructure and interest existed from the past, which is now coming to fit into the diplomatic orientation of Athens.
Whether Aegean is not just another airline but (prospectively) a national ambassador of the country's interests (political, business, cultural, etc.), I have discussed this at length with its agents, receiving a positive response.
I recall that, on the occasion of the announcement to invest in 4 new longer range Airbus, there was an explicit reference to the latitude that could be covered by the new 4 A321neo: destinations in the Gulf region, already included in the network (e.g., Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai), possible new additions to the region (e.g., Bahrain, Doha, Oman) and potential new destinations in central Africa (e.g., Lagos, Nairobi, Addis Ababa) or in Asia, with the possibility of covering destinations such as Delhi and Mumbai in India or Almaty in Kazakhstan.
More specifically, on the substance: an expansion, then, in the Indian market would put Aegean on the chariot of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), which was the focus of the Prime Minister's three-day visit to the world's fifth largest economy.
Methodical and intelligent, Eftihis Vassilakis cannot fail to grasp the wider role that Aegean could play as an ambassador of Greek interests in a wider and vitally important region—from Africa to Asia—in the context of promoting and cultural (and not only) initiatives, the diplomatic agent noted. He added meaningfully that, just as Ankara and Tayyip Erdogan instrumentalize the presence of Turkish Airlines as a means of projecting the power of the neighbor's interests, so too will Athens be able to have a distinct representative in specific regions.
Besides, as the company's size and effective crisis management demonstrate, Aegean is acting as more than just a healthy company—as a case study of a successful model in the broader sense.
And I will close with an investment approach: with Ryanair, Aegean has the strongest balance sheets among European carriers, with increased free cash flow generation this year as well. And at €900m valuation, out of the undervalued stocks of the FTSE25 Large Cap.
