Athens News Agency: News in English, 01-11-30

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Axon shuts down in airlines crisis after Sept. terrorism attacks

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

[03] Weather Forecast: Rain, snow and storms on Saturday

[04] Greek stocks slightly off in ASE

[05] IATA survey ranks Athens airport 6th in world, 2nd in Europe

[01] Axon shuts down in airlines crisis after Sept. terrorism attacks

Axon Airlines, until recently the frontrunner in a tender to privatise Olympic Airways, announced on Friday that it would cease operations due to a slump in the airline industry after terrorist attacks in the US deterred the public from air travel.

At the same time, the privately owned airline did not rule out a resumption of operations in the future if conditions in the industry improved, management said in a statement.

"The global crisis in air transportation that has hit all sector companies after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US has deteriorated rapidly with a spectacular rise in losses. Recovery is not discernible in the near future," the statement said.

"This radical, fundamental upheaval in market conditions has annulled planning and led us to taking the unpleasant decision of halting the company's operations," management said.

At the same time, should international and domestic conditions improve, then Axon would consider a resumption of operations, making use of the investments it has made since 1999 in a fleet of modern aircraft and fully trained staff, the statement added.

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

Indicative tourist buying rates until Monday

U.S. dollar 379.877

German mark 172.829

French franc 051.531

Pound sterling 541.879

Irish punt 429.202

Belgian franc 008.379

Luxembourg franc 008.379

Dutch guilder 153.389

Italian lira (100) 017.457

Austrian schilling 024.565

Danish kroner 045.418

Swedish kroner 035.615

Finnish mark 056.852

Spanish peseta 002.032

Portuguese escudo 001.686

Japanese yen (100) 307.120

Swiss franc 229.569

Norwegian kroner 042.513

Cyprus pound 588.636

Canadian dollar 240.472

Australian dollar 197.983

[03] Weather Forecast: Rain, snow and storms on Saturday

Heavy rains are expected in many parts of the country on Saturday, with storms at sea. Snow will fall on high and low ground in the centre and north. Winds variable, strong to very strong, turning gale force at sea. In the north, temperatures will range from -3C to 6C; on the rest of the mainland and the Ionian from -1C to 12C; and in the Aegean islands from 7C to 16C. Cloud turning to rain and storms in Athens, with snow on high ground around the city. Temperatures between 6C and 10C. Snow expected in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 0C to 5C.

[04] Greek stocks slightly off in ASE

Equity prices ended Friday's session slightly lower reflecting lack of fresh incentives and directions in the Athens Stock Exchange.

The general index ended 0.17 percent off to 2,694.02 points, with turnover a moderate Dr 65.1 billion or 191.1 million euros. The index ended the week with a net gain of 0.71 percent.

The Retail and Textiles sectors suffered the heaviest percentage losses (1.35 percent and 1.07 percent, respectively), while the Food and Cement sectors scored the biggest percentage gains (0.26 percent and 0.24 percent, respectively).

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks was unchanged from Thursday's close, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index fell 0.46 percent and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index eased 0.28 percent.

Intracom Constructions saw its share price jump 68.48 percent on its debut in the market.

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 185 to 134 with another 35 issues unchanged.

[05] IATA survey ranks Athens airport 6th in world, 2nd in Europe

Athens' new Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport is one of the best airports in the world according to the latest IATA Global Monitoring Survey released on Friday.

The survey ranked Athens airport 6th worldwide and 2nd in Europe for passenger satisfaction, beating major international airports such as Hong Kong, Taipei, Peking and Seattle. In Europe, only Helsinki Vantaa Airport got a better ranking than Athens, which beat Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Paris, London, Brussels, Vienna, Madrid and Zurich.

Athens airport's CEO Dr. Matthias Mitscherlich noted on Friday that in the same survey last year, the old Hellenikon airport in Athens had ranked next to last. He said the survey showed that Eleftherios Venizelos was a highly competitive airport that will boost Greek tourism significantly and marked a new era for Greek air transport.

The independent IATA Global Monitor Survey is the main tool for measuring passenger satisfaction on an international level. The survey analyses the perception of over 90,000 international passengers for various service categories, who are asked to rate airports on the basis of questions such as ease of making connections, flight availability, speed of baggage delivery or value-for-money shopping and catering facilities.

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