Forced to act on Olympic Airways
For the past 15 years, successive Greek administrations have been extremely reluctant to impose a solution for the troubled Olympic Airlines (formerly known as Olympic Airways) state carrier. Of course that only meant bequeathing the problem to their successors. Hence, pressure grew as debts soared and potential buyers became more difficult to find. Finding a solution today is much harder than it was yesterday and so it goes. In two months, Greece will finally have to meet its obligation as a European Commission directive is forcing Greece’s conservative government to protect taxpayers from a daily loss of -800,000. The government must defy any reactions and get on with the sale of Olympic Airways. Not because this is called for by the European Union, but because it has an obligation toward the Greek people to do so.
