OLYMPIC AIR   Passenger Reviews and Customer Trip Reports

OLYMPIC AIR customer review :  6 November 2009 : by B Ludovic   (UK)

LHR-ATH new A320. Aircraft was clean but grey and gloomy. Food surprisingly good, good coffee, by airline standards. Service excellent. The return flight was another new A320 whose blue seats gave economy class a feeling of being a cut above budget-airline equivalents. Food and service of a high standard, although trays could have been cleared away sooner - and the aircraft was rather warm. Check-in for both flights was a breeze. Olympic Air has made a promising start, with a new impression of efficiency that will be a revelation to anyone familiar with its predecessor. But London to Athens is a most competitive routes and at the moment Aegean still edges it, offering in-flight entertainment where OA had none (a surprising omission), and its own magazine (aside from a one-off souvenir magazine commemorating OA's heritage, OA's magazine is in fact that of the parent company MIG, beefed up with OA-specific content and is in Greek only). Furthermore, the frequent plugging of MIG's other brands was seriously off-putting, even it did mean free biscuits promoting its food arm. Hearing "Thank you flying Olympic Air, part of Marfin Investment Group" at the end of the flight is a surefire way to drain the glamour out of the Olympic brand name and any remaining romance out of flying altogether. Nobody loves a conglomerate, so a bit more subtlety would go a long way. I'll keep my eye on OA in the future but for the time being will probably continue to choose Aegean for this route.