Aegean Athens after six years: the island summer from the crew side, the Athens winter
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#1 Aegean, Athens, six years, and the Aegean threads on here are the summer island life one and the Greek carrier one. Year six from inside, with the agreement and the pride, because the Greek applicants read this forum and the Aegean section is thin.
The airline
Greece's carrier, Athens as the hub, Thessaloniki as the second, the A320neo family and the A321neo for the longer sectors, a network across Europe and the Middle East and the Greek islands, and the Olympic Air regional subsidiary on the turboprops to the small islands. A legacy carrier with a low cost pace in summer and a full service identity, which is the Aegean thing.
The island summer from the crew side
May to October: every aircraft, every crew, the islands (Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes, Crete, Corfu, Kos) from Athens and Thessaloniki and the European cities direct, full of the summer tourists and the Greek families, four sector days with the island turnarounds, the seasonal island bases (Anastasia's Heraklion and Rhodes) staffed by the crew who bid them. The summer is the Aegean year and the crew fly the most hours of any European carrier in July.
The Athens winter
November to March: the European network thinner, the Athens to the islands reduced, the Middle East routes (Tel Aviv when it flies, Cairo, Beirut, Larnaca) as the winter protection, the standby blocks, the leave taken. The Athens winter is mild and the crew who did the summer need it. The seasonal crew are laid off or on reduced hours, as every Mediterranean thread says, and the permanent crew fly the winter.
The Greek collective agreement
The Aegean cabin crew agreement, negotiated with the union, public, with the Greek employment law behind it: the pay scale in euros (modest by Northern European standards, decent by Greek ones), the flight hour pay, the allowances, the seasonal and permanent contract structures, the rest rules. The agreement held through the Greek crisis years and the crew who were here for them have the crisis thread's pride.
Why the Aegean crew are the proudest in the Mediterranean
Because the airline is Greece's and it survived the crisis and it won the awards and it flies the islands that the world comes to see. The Aegean service (the Greek hospitality, the meal on a 45 minute island hop, the crew who speak four languages) is the identity and the crew carry it. The Cyprus and the Italian and the Spanish crews on this forum would argue and the Aegean crew would smile.
For the Greek applicants
Greek fluent, English real, a third language a plus, Athens or Thessaloniki as the base, the summer as the job and the winter as the question, the agreement as the protection. Aegean is the Greek career and the one the Greek crew are proud of. Apply in the spring for the summer.
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#2 Aegean Athens, and Elena's year six is the Aegean I described from the island bases with the Athens winter added. The proudest in the Mediterranean is a claim the Cyprus crew will contest and the Aegean crew will win. The agreement through the crisis is the pride.
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#3 Athens, Aegean and Emirates applications in, and the Aegean thread from inside with the agreement and the winter is the one I needed next to the Emirates ones. The summer as the job. The pride. Applying in the spring, as Elena says.
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#4 Cyprus Airways, and the proudest in the Mediterranean is contested from Larnaca and conceded on the awards. The Aegean service on a 45 minute island hop is the thing the Cyprus crew respect. The summer is the same summer. The pride is Greek and Cypriot both.
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#5 Athens, applying, and the Aegean year six from inside with the winter honestly described is the thing the Athens applicant groups argue about. The permanent crew fly the winter and the seasonal are the question. Elena has settled it.
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#6 ITA Rome, and the Italian crews would argue the proudest in the Mediterranean and the Aegean crews would smile, exactly as Elena says. The Mediterranean legacy carriers (Aegean, ITA, Iberia, TAP) are one tribe with four prides.
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#7 Prague, and the Smartwings charters into Rhodes and Crete share the apron with the Aegean crews in July and the Aegean crews are the ones who look like they own the islands, because they do. Elena's pride is visible from the Czech aircraft.