Aegean Airlines, Greece’s largest carrier and a Star Alliance member, has announced a new route from Luxembourg to Athens for summer 2016.

Operating on Thursdays and Saturdays between 19 May and 29 September 2016, the Luxembourg-Athens service provides passengers with a direct link to the Greek capital as well as onward connectivity throughout the Greek islands and mainland Greece.

Over and above the domestic connections, Luxembourg-Athens service offers a high number of connecting opportunities to cities in the neighboring countries such as the Balkans and Turkey as well as cities in the Middle East.

The flights will operate using 174-seat Airbus A320 aircraft, offering a dual class configuration and full onboard service, which includes complimentary food and drink.
Business class passengers and Star Alliance Gold card members have business lounge access at Luxembourg Airport. Star Alliance Gold card members are also eligible for one extra piece of luggage as per booking class booked.

Athens is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum; it is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy. Today, a cosmopolitan metropolis, modern Athens is central to economic, financial, industrial, political and cultural life in Greece.

During the 2016 summer season a total of thirteen additional destinations will be launched from Athens and will bring the number of direct services to 101. The 13 new routes are: Amsterdam, Bari, Dublin, Jeddah, Krakow, Lille, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Luxembourg, Naples, Nice, Palma de Mallorca and Split. The new countries served from Athens are 5: Ireland, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia. Extra frequencies are also planned for existing routes in all major source markets of Greek tourism as the network additions from past years continue to mature.

In 2016 Aegean will be operating at a total of 145 different destinations: 111 international and 34 domestic in Greece. This network encompasses 45 different countries.

Approximately 16.2 million seats will be made available, an increase of 1.1 million from 2015. The flights will be operated by one of the youngest fleets in Europe and will include four more brand new Airbus A320ceos to be delivered between November 2015 and March 2016. Aegean plans to operate 61 aircraft in 2016, 47 Airbus A320/321s and 14 Bombardier Q400/100s.

AEGEAN's Vice Chairman, Mr. Eftichios Vassilakis, stated at Thursday's Press Conference in Athens "Exactly two years after acquiring Olympic Air we have moved to the next level, thanks to the potential we created for the company with the synergies, the efforts and the maturation of our excellent team. In about 3 years we have had a balanced expansion of our regional bases, as well as of the Athens base, by approximately 3 million passengers, transferring this year more than 11.5 million passengers, to more than 40 countries and Greece. Even this difficult and full of challenges year, we received brand new Airbus A320ceo’s during the capital controls and supported the Greek tourism with a growth rate many times higher than the market's rate, which except for Athens was stagnant. Furthermore, with lower fares and increased international flights, we increased significantly the traffic to less popular destinations, affected by the reduction of domestic tourism, keeping the promise we made when we acquired Olympic Air. In 2016, looking forward to the economy stabilisation, we continue our efforts actively with 13 new destinations and 1.1 million additional seats. With our new 4 Αirbus we shall reach 61 aircraft and 16 million seats in 45 countries. Additionally, we continue to develop new services for our passengers, to support the Greek families with plans such as "Konta stous neous" (Supporting Young People), to promote Greek products and Greek culture and feature moments from Greece. Some initial steps have been taken, but we need a closer and more efficient collaboration between public and private stakeholders for the promotion of Greece, because we are facing many challenges, having limited available resources. It is only with collaboration and joint effort we will be able to overcome the stagnation that also threatens tourism".

Full schedule and network information can be found online at www.aegeanair.com.