TAE National Greek Airlines

TAE National Greek Airlines (Template:Langx, , literally Technical and Aeronautical Holdings—National Air Lines), originally branded in English as TAE National Greek Airlines, was formed by the Greek government in 1951 to be the national airline of Greece. The airline operated without competition on domestic routes in Greece and served a small number of European and Middle Eastern cities. The airline was sold to Aristotle Onassis in 1957 and he renamed the carrier Olympic Airways.

History

In the post-World War II era, there were four airlines operating in Greece:

• Technical and Aeronautical Holdings – T.A.E. (Template:Langx)
• Greek Air Transport/Hellenic Airlines – G.A.T. (Template:Langx)
• Air Transport of Greece (Template:Langx)
• Daedalus Airlines (Template:Langx)

Of these, T.A.E., Air Transport of Greece and Daedalus Airlines were privately held and G.A.T. was publicly owned. In 1950, Daedalus Airlines ceased operations as the number of passengers for all Greek airlines declined precipitously. Due to the financial difficulties of all three carriers and to ensure that Greece maintained a Greek-flagged carrier, in 1951, the Greek government forced the merger of all three companies into TAE Greek National Airlines.

The 18 aircraft from the three merged airlines included 1 Douglas DC-4 Skymaster and the rest were Douglas DC-3 Dakotas. The DC-4 was used primarily on the bi-weekly route from Athens to Rome-Paris-London. Additionally, the airline served the Balkan cities of Belgrade and Istanbul, Nicosia in Cyprus and the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

In 1955, the airline was not performing financially and the Greek state sought unsuccessfully to find a buyer. Eventually, Aristotle Onassis agreed to buy the ailing carrier in July 1956. The company flew under the name T.A.E. until April 1957, when the airline was renamed Olympic Airways.

Destinations

TAE Greek National Airlines served a number of domestic destinations in Greece, as well as international destinations.

File:ΤΑΕ01.jpeg

TAE Schedule

File:ΤΑΕ02.jpeg

TAE Schedule

Domestic service

Template:Flagicon Greece Agrinion Alexandroupolis Athens Chania Ioannina Kavala Komotini

Limnos Kerkyra Mitilini Heraklion Rhodes Thessaloniki

International service

Template:Flagicon Cyprus Nicosia Template:Flagicon Egypt Alexandria Template:Flagicon France Paris Template:Flagicon Israel Tel Aviv

Template:Flagicon Italy Rome Template:Flagicon Turkey Istanbul Template:Flagicon United Kingdom London Template:Flagicon Yugoslavia Belgrade

Fleet

TAE Greek National Airline Fleet

Aircraft	Total	Type	Notes
Douglas DC-3	17	Propeller aircraft
Douglas DC-4	1	Propeller aircraft	SX-DAG