Olympic Airways is expected to order 15 Boeing 737s on the advice of British Airways' Speedwing consultancy, which took over management of the Greek flag carrier last year.
The 15 aircraft will replace Olympic's 11 737-200Advs, plus a handful of leased aircraft due for return, while allowing for planned expansion. Speedwing was expected to make its narrowbody recommendation to the Olympic board this week, with industry sources suggesting the Boeing option would be put forward for approval.
An airline source says an earlier plan to take Boeing 757s from BA was dismissed because it "could not offer a positive contribution", adding: "Olympic couldn't cope with 757s, so a major change of type would also be hard to cope with."
Olympic wants to shed four 747-200s and two 727s (operated by Macedonian Airlines Greece), in addition to the owned 737-200s. Some could be disposed of as part of the new deal.
Olympic has a suspended order for eight 737-800s, which is likely to be reactivated.
Source: Flight International
