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Saturday, 20 April 2024
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Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-11-21Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] PM Karamanlis confers with transport minister, latter on Olympic AirlinesPrime minister Costas Karamanlis met on Wednesday with Transport and Communications Minister Costis Hatzidakis, with whom he discussed measures concerning public transport and relevant announcements that the minister will make on Thursday. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Hatzidakis said that the government wanted qualitative, modern and citizen-friendly public transport, adding that they also discussed the national telecoms strategy due to be unveiled soon, as well as the issue of the national carrier Olympic Airlines (OA). Regarding OA, the minister said that the government's replies have been sent to Brussels regarding the matter of arbitration, and now the European Union's response was awaited.Hatzidakis said that a dialogue was in process at both political and technical level, and the government's intention was for a solution to be found. Replying to questions, the minister acknowledged that OA faced a number of problems, but added that an effort was being made to tackle them to the degree possible. He said the goal was to salvage the company and carry on with its denationalisation, which he said was indicative of the government's understanding of the issue and of the fact that it was trying to give a solution that would take into consideration the interests of the taxpayers as well as the OA employees, and also the need for providing air links to the country's islands. Hatzidakis stressed that safety was a matter of absolute priority both for his ministry and the OA board of directors, in reply to questions conerning problems that arose recently on aircraft leased by OA, adding that it would be a mistake to allow panic to arise over the matter, given that OA has a long track record of high safety levels. To another question, the minister said that there was no discussion of increases in public transport fares, nor on changes to the OSE (Hellenic Railways Organisation) management. Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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