When you’re a billionaire, or… “even”, millionaire on vacation, or business appointments you don’t travel by airplane. In Greece, the boom in tourism and the placing of the country on the “map” of the most high quality destinations on the planet, has attracted some of the richest people in the world, which fully justifies the great mobility that has recently been observed in investments in private planes and helicopters.
New companies are being introduced, old ones are growing, fleets of flying assets are being renewed with state of the art aircraft and in the… background, drones. According to a report of Newmoney.gr, companies that perform VIP flights and provide “air taxi” services are investing heavily in the future, even when it comes to urban air transport with pilotless flying vehicles, or cargo transport in this way; however far-fetched it may seem.
The waters have been stirred recently by shipowner George Logothetis’ LCI, which has begun by acquiring a portfolio of 19 helicopters, jointly with Lobo Leasing, along with RIVE Private Investment and Turning Rock Partners. In total, the fleet to be acquired is valued at more than $115 million. It consists of helicopters from leading manufacturers, including Airbus Helicopters, Bell, Leonardo and Sikorsky.
The next step was the entry of Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing (SMFL) into the Libra subsidiary, with the acquisition of 35% of LCI. SMFL and the Libra Group plan to grow LCI’s operations by $1.5 billion over the next few years with significant capital investments, and have already launched a $230 million helicopter leasing joint venture with 19 next-generation helicopters three years ago. Since then, the joint venture has expanded and now has a portfolio of over 50 aircraft, valued at over $550 million.
An emerging force in the air taxi industry in Europe is the Greek-rooted Greek Airtaxi Network. GATN has access to more than 7000 private planes and helicopters, with a fleet ranging from small helicopters and helicopters, to ultra-luxury business jets and state-of-the-art luxury helicopters. The network is currently in the process of renewing its fleet with the addition of new helicopters and lear jets.
Last week, Superior Air – owned by Elias Sofianos – which has the largest general aviation fleet in Greece, took delivery of a brand new Airbus H135 Helionix. For this year, Superior Air, adds to its fleet: 3 Bell 407 helicopters, 3 Robinson R66 helicopters, 3 Agusta helicopters, 1 Eurocopter EC120 helicopter, 1 Airbus H125 helicopter. Superior has 4 different bases and 5 types of aircraft, as well as its own helipads.
Another Greek air taxi company specializes in VIP air transport. The reason is ifly, which this year added to its fleet (two Agusta 109 Power helicopters and two Airbus 355), a Cessna Caravan, a Cessna Grand Caravan and a Pilatus.
The historical airline Air Intersalonika, is – according to Newmoney.gr – in search of new aircraft now that the market is “opening” (after Covid). Already, it has added to its fleet ( which counts a Beachcraft C90b and a B200 Superking Air, as well as an Airbus 355 helicopter), a Beechcraft Premier 1 jet plane. Air Intersalonika employs eight pilots.
Airlift, has added a new Airbus H135 Helionix to its fleet, and has other types of twin-engine and single-engine Airbus helicopters, as well as jet aircraft. The company has the advantage of having its own heliports, in Maroussi, Kato Kifissia and Aspropyrgos.
Belavia, which owns two planes, has stayed true to its tradition of owning… as many types of Bell helicopters as possible and so added a Bell 407 to its fleet. SYNESIS, owned by the Saracakis family, has two Leonardo helicopters and an Airbus and is gearing up to renew its fleet, while Zela Aviation, which has re-emerged with a new identity, and Athens-based Amjet Executive, which was founded by the pilot and current Ghanaian Minister of State, Abakar Manani, are attempting to return to Greek operations.
Merkur Air has added another privately owned aircraft to its fleet. It is a Learjet 35A, which is based at El. Venizelos’, which has been acquired by the Scandinavian aviation giant Babcock – with whom it is launching a wider partnership – while Helistar, which has two helicopters, has rented the historic Koropi heliport, which it also uses as its base.
And in drones
As long as drones seem to be far from “landing” in the Greek reality, Greeks are investing in autonomous vehicles for cargo transportation. Such an agreement, for the purchase of 20 Chaparral vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones with an option to acquire another 20, has been signed with Elroy Air, Libra Group’s LCI. The Chaparral is the first fully autonomous VTOL cargo delivery aircraft. It is designed for air transport of cargo weighing up to 225 kg (500 lbs) over a 300 nautical mile radius.
Ship owner Michael Spyridakos’ SpiritWorldGroup plans to enter the autonomous air taxi space, and has signed an agreement with US company Flying Ships to develop cargo drones, which are large-sized (as large as a ship, or an aircraft) autonomous air cargo delivery drones. In the first phase, an initial 12-metre-long model with a carrying capacity of 1200 kg and a range of 300 nautical miles (RANGE) has been designed and is planned to be developed gradually over the next few years.
