It is strange that there seems to be no interest in that issue on this forum.An arlier post just disappeared from the forum.. .It is time for the dreamers in OA to wake up and face the real world.There is a widespread oppinion. .that OA will always be there, and they thought they could continue like this forever.. .OA just recently published the results for the year 1999.No books closed for 2000 yet. Something to hide?. .OA does not pay social security for their employees on time. Only after they are long overdue.. .For years they just kept the "Spata-charge" for themselves.This is a surcharge imposed on every ticket to and from a greek airport, intended to be used for the construction of the new Athens airport at Spata.. .Repeatedly they receive credits from state-owned banks, to cover running expenses.These banks are advised to give the credits by the government,because no private bank would throw it`s money at OA, where it is lost anyway.. .They have also used money intended for the renewal of the fleet, to cover running expenses.. .. .PRIVATIZATION: . .What a joke!!. .They asked for bids from interested parties, to buy OA.. .No airline with a serious background made an offer.. .Among the parties making an offer were . .. .-Cyprus Airways(did not have the money,wanted to impose a realistic businessplan,which meant less employees,which in turn meant the government would not accept this,because many OA employees got their job as a gift in return for their vote). .. .-Cronus/Aegean (Never made a buck with their ops and this was too big for them anyway). .. .-Axon Airlines (At the time had 2 B737 and was owned by a weapon dealer, who has made business with the greek government in the past.Obviously he had the members of the greek government by the balls,because they tried everything to give OA away to this guy, although it was obvious, for everybody having no vacuum in his head,that this so called airline had no chance of supporting an airline operation of the size of OA.The negotiations fail and Axon goes bankrupt the same week... Now what an embarassment for the government,having wasted months of OA`s valuable time to negotiate with this moneylosing outfit). .. .-IAS (Integrated Airline Solutions) Known as the "australians". A so called venture capital firm, allegedly from australia,or lebanon,or maybe Aigaleo? Nobody knows.... .However they told everybody they would develop OA into a major outfit,expanding the longhaul network, and promising whatever you would like to hear, when you see yourself ending up with no job soon.The pilots decided to be part of this , investing money from their solidarity fund.Now we have a businessplan, expressing the wishful thinking of the desperate, rather than a realistic plan to stay afloat.One after the other the investors leave the scheme.At the day of the deadline the pilots and another "investor", a member of the Vardinogiannis family are supposed to present bank-guarantees for their stake in the offer. The pilots do present their`s, but the sole other person remaining in the scheme is not able to present a valid bank guarantee.. .. . The so called privatization fails, and now the government has to come up with a plan to keep OA alive.This becoming more and more difficult, after having lost another 15 months of valuable time.. .. .Now the government announces its plan:. .. .-Separate flightops from the rest of the group. .-Reducing the workforce by 2000 people in the next 2 years.. .-Stop lossmaking routes.. .-Reduce the fleet by 15-20 aircraft.. . (The 737-200s have to stop operations for noise reasons,longhaul operations are a candidate for cuts) . .-Integrating the flight operations of Olympic Airways,Olympic Aviation and Macedonian Airlines into one entity.Rumours are talking about reducing the pilots` number by 150.(This should be easily achieved, by letting these guys sort out their seniority...). .. .Now wasn`t it part of the plan of BA,when they did the management and made an offer for the majority stake of OA?Turning OA into a viable regional operator? They were sent away ,being accused for failure, just after 11 months of a 30month managementcontract. I have the feeling,that this was a big mistake.. .. .Now we have this investigation from the European Commission. If they rule OA has to return money, because it did not play by the rules, then they will have to come up with something new, because advising a bank to pay them money will be out of the question then.. .. .It is sad, to see this "achievement" in a country predestined to support a succesful airline,by its geographical location,the number of tourists visiting it,the numerous islands,that need to be connected by air.