Aegean Airlines (A3, Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International (ATH)) has apparently offered a concession package to the European Commission hoping to receive approval for its proposed acquisition of smaller competitor Olympic Air (OA, Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International (ATH)) instead. According to a statement published by the European Commission, the deadline for a decision has now been postponed to April 23 as more time is required to review the concessions offered by Aegean. The two Greek carriers agreed to the acquisition of Olympic by Aegean for 72 million EUR in October 2012 already but the transaction needs approval by the EU which had previously already denied approval for a similar deal. Olympic Air is now much smaller operating just ten Dash 8-400s and four Dash 8-100s in the upcoming summer timetable period.

Olympic Air (OA, Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International (ATH)) will phase out its remaining two A319-100s and three A320-200s by the end of this month. The aircraft are no longer scheduled to operate on Olympic's scheduled domestic and regional flights from March 30 onwards. Olympic will cancel its services from Athens to Larnaca (LCA) and Tel Aviv Ben Gurion (TLV) and from Thessaloniki Makedonia (SKG) to Chania Ioannis Daskalogiannis International (CHQ), Heraklion Nikos Kazantzakis (HER), Mykonos (JMK), Mytilene (MJT), Rhodes Diagoras/Maritsa (RHO) and Santorini (JTR). It will continue to operate eight Dash 8-400s and two Dash 8-100s. Some of the aircraft including A320-200 SX-OAH (c/n 3316) are expected to be transferred to Aegean Airlines (A3, Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International (ATH)). The European Commission is currently reviewing the proposed acquisition of Olympic Air by Aegean Airlines originally announced in October 2012.

Aegean Airlines (A3, Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International (ATH)) has reached agreement with Olympic Air (OA, Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International (ATH)) Marfin Investment Fund to acquire 100% of the shares in Olympic Air. Based on initial reports, Olympic would continue to operate as a separate carrier if the merger is approved by Greek authorities and the European Commission. The two carriers had already proposed to merge two years ago but at the time the deal had to be cancelled as the European Commission did not approve the merger due to the large market share the two carriers would have had in the Greek market together. It is widely expected that the merger is more likely to be approved this time around given Olympic Air is now a lot smaller and more competitors such as Cyprus Airways (CY, Larnaca (LCA)) have entered the Greek domestic market.

Solomons - Solomon Airlines (IE, Honiara International (HIR)) is about to take delivery of its first ex-Olympic Air (OA, Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International (ATH)) Dash 8-100 (c/n 289) that is currently being prepared at Bournemouth (BOH) for the national carrier of the Solomon Islands. Solomon Airlines currently already uses a Dash 8-100 on domestic routes, but the aircraft (P2-MCQ, c/n 243) is wet-leased from Airlines of PNG (CG, Port Moresby Jacksons (POM)).

Aegean Airlines (A3, Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International (ATH)) has started using Olympic Air (OA, Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International (ATH)) Dash 8-400s on the daily flight between Athens Eleftherios Venizelos International (ATH) and Kalamata (KLX).