“I feel like I bought the Acropolis,” Andreas Christodoulides said after purchasing the legendary Aristotle Onassis aircraft of Olympic Airways before they were destined for the scrap heap.
With a voice full of emotion, the Greek Cypriot businessman spoke on Greek television about his efforts to save the three Olympic Airways airplanes, including the famous Mount Olympus Boeing 727/284.
It was one of the six Boeing aircraft the air carrier purchased in the late 1960s, with the registration number SX-CBA. It first landed at Ellinikon International Airport in 1969 after flying from Seattle. The Greek tycoon, Aristotle Onassis, received it on December 19, 1968, during a celebratory reception that remains unforgettable to those who attended.
The two aircraft have transported several international celebrities to Greece and have starred in many Greek films.
The other Boeing was the Mount Olympus 727/200, now demonstrated after restoration at the Olympic Airways Square of the Ellinikon-Argyroupolis Municipality, close to the old Athens airport. The third airplane is a BAC1-11 bearing the colors of the Greek flag, which was left in a Lavrio field.
“I have saved the history (of Greek aviation). I did it for Greece, for Onassis, for Ellinikon (the former Athens airport), for our children. With the planes that I have restored, in a hundred years from now, our children and grandchildren will remember our story,” he said.
It was a challenging endeavor to disassemble the planes and move them until one was placed along the road on the busy Vouliagmenis Avenue, the thoroughfare connecting downtown Athens with the Athens Riviera.
A long history in aviation
The Greek Cypriot businessman has an extensive aviation career. He mentioned that his love for airplanes began at the age of six when he preferred flying toy airplanes to racing model cars on the ground. He stated that airplanes were his passion and even quoted Aristotle Onassis, who referred to aviation as “my lover.”
In 1995, he attempted to establish his own airline in Greece under the name Trans European Hellas. He began with a fleet of three aircraft, aiming to service domestic scheduled flights and reduce fare prices. However, his efforts were unsuccessful as the state-owned Olympic Airlines (previously Olympic Airways) dominated the market.
Christodoulides moved his activities to Cyprus in 1998, a period when private air transport started to develop on the island.
He created the “Nea Aphrodite” airline, a brand name registered by someone else. He then decided to temporarily name his company “Helios”, drawing inspiration from the sun god Helios of Rhodes. The establishment of “Helios Airways” was made with personal funds and funds from his wife’s estate.
The crash that changed his scope
The Greek Cypriot businessman began with both scheduled and charter flights, with the first international route directed to Bulgaria. In 2004, he entered the Larnaca-Athens-Thessaloniki route through a joint venture with Aegean. However, this venture proved to be very costly for him, and it ended shortly thereafter, forcing him to sell “Helios.”
On August 14, 2005, the crash of the Boeing 737-31S aircraft in the Grammatiko area of Greece resulted in the loss of 121 lives. Although he had sold the company eight months before the tragic incident, he was investigated and interrogated for nearly two years afterwards until it was determined that he was not liable for the accident.
The tragic aviation event and the consequent trouble he went through led him to the decision to step aside for a year and concentrate on the hotel business in Bulgaria. During the pandemic, he created a private jet charter company, Zela Jet. It is part of the Zela Aviation group of companies, which has over 16 years of operation in the field of chartering and selling aircraft to major airlines worldwide.
Christodoulides’ goal through this move was to provide an affordable solution for private and business travel, both within Greece and Cyprus, as well as in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region. Zela Jet offers travel without “luxuries, flight attendants or other additional services,” as he often says when introducing his venture.
Onassis and his love for aviation and Olympic Airways
In July 1956, internationally known shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis signed an agreement with the Greek State to take over the national air carrier Technical Aviation Holdings (TAE). Onassis renamed it Olympic Airways on April 6, 1957, with both domestic and international flights.
Onassis’s love for aviation and his airline were legendary. A director at Olympic Airways famously said that Onassis “would spend all the money he made at sea with his mistress in the sky,” describing his dedication to the airline
In 1971, the Greek magnate established a subsidiary airline, Olympic Aviation, to serve the Greek islands with more efficiency and lower cost.
In 1972, he turned Olympic towards the important Greece-Australia market, beginning Boeing 707–320 operations between Athens and Sydney twice a week via Bangkok and Singapore.
By then, Olympic Airways had become a boutique airline, with air hostesses wearing custom Pierre Cardin uniforms, and fine Greek cuisine was served on gold-plated serving ware.
However, in 1973, his passion for aviation, which he had passed to his son, Alexander, took a fatal turn. On January 22, the 24-year-old Onassis boarded a Piaggio P.136L-2 amphibious aircraft to oversee the recruiting test of a pilot for Olympic Aviation. Only seconds after take-off, the right wing of the airplane dropped, causing the plane to crash.
Alexander Onassis was taken to the hospital but succumbed to his wounds the next day. His father was devastated and completely lost interest in his beloved airline. A few months later, he sold his shares of Olympic Airways to the Greek State.
Devastated by his tragic loss, a few months later, he sold his Olympic Airways shares to the Greek State. Aristotle Onassis never recovered from the shock of the death of his son and heir and died on March 15, 1975, at age 69, at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine
The beloved plane of the late Greek tycoon, the “Olympic Eagle” (SX-OAB), a Boeing 747, was recently moved to a permanent location at Ellinikon, which is now being transformed into the largest metropolitan park in Greece.
The “Olympic Eagle” has been relocated next to the main building of the old Athens Airport, designed by the world-renowned Finnish-born American architect Eero Saarinen.
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