AEGEAN AIRLINES MAKES FINAL DECISION TO GO WITH

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 002395

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/13/2015
TAGS: EAIR ECON GR
SUBJECT: AEGEAN AIRLINES MAKES FINAL DECISION TO GO WITH
AIRBUS FOR REFLEETING

REF: A. ATHENS 1836


B. ATHENS 1851

C. ATHENS 1903

D. ATHENS 1999

Classified By: AMB Charles Ries for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D)


1. (C) On Friday, September 9th, Aegean airlines informed
Ambassador and Boeing representatives that its Board of
Directors, despite Boeing's new offer (reftel D),had
confirmed its previous decision to refleet with Airbus.
According to shareholder Eftichios Laskaridis, the Board, in
a meeting held September 1st, voted 14 to 1 in favor of
Airbus (the sole dissenting vote coming from Laskaridis.)
The only reason given for the decision was that going with
Airbus provided "clearly visible novelty" to Aegean customers.


2. (C) COMMENT: Aegean's final announcement came, like all
its other decisions during this process, as a surprise to
everyone involved. No one, including Boeing, had any idea
that the Aegean Board had met in full on September 1st, or
that a decision had been made. In fact, Boeing and Post had
spoken on the 6th about the situation, believing that Aegean
was delaying its decision until after the September 14th EC
ruling on the Olympic Airlines privatization deal. Although
the outcome was not what we wanted, it seems likely that our
intervention did succeed in getting Boeing in for one last
offer, and that Boeing's offer was sufficiently attractive to
stir debate among the Board. Post will continue to keep an
ear to the ground for any hint of a connection between
Aegean's refleeting decision and an EC decision on the
Olympic Airlines privatization deal, due this week. END
COMMENT.
RIES