You make an interesting point Driftwood but I don't know if the parallel is all that apt. The Greek shipping industry was built on the back of cheap post-war tonnage that combined very nicely with expanding world trade, a nation of very switched-on traders who also had plenty of ship-operating experience and finally government regulating bodies that saw the shipowners' interests as parallel to their own, i.e. a way to earn foreign currency. Onassis, Niarchos, Livanos and a few others were the cream of that trading crop.
Do you know where many of them gravitated to? You guessed, it: London, because that's where the trading centres are. Ergo the shipping term "London Greeks". Many of the Norwegian shipowners also gravitated to London and you'll find more than a few American-owned shipping companies headquartered there.
It's a different world today what with EU and all that. What the Greeks - and a number of others - still have, though, is an extraordinary trading knack for sussing out the future - call it gut feeling if you will. That's not to say EasyJet have a better crystal ball than anyone else. But their timing and accomplishmente so far speak for themselves, don't they?
broadreach