ELLINAIR CASE: SO WHO WAS RIGHT?!
Exactly two years ago, I wrote an article about how the new owner of the Greek airline ELLINAIR stole 6.8 million euros of European Union aid, which had been allocated to restore the airline's operations after the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to the great resonance of this article in Greece itself, for the BLACKLIST.AERO team and for me personally, this resulted in another information attack on us with the same delusional accusations of "blackmail, extortion and slander by pro-Russian gangsters".
Now, two years later, I would like to ask a question to everyone who turned their noses with a clever look and reasoned that "not everything is so simple": so who was right?! Has ELLINAIR resumed flights in these two years? Have airline employees at least received debts for their salaries, not to mention numerous counterparties, including leasing, insurance, handling companies, and even Eurocontrol?
NO ONE FLEW ANYWHERE. NO ONE RECEIVED ANYTHING.
Moreover, when the part of the employees who did not believe the promises of Konstantinas Vardakis went to court and achieved the freezing of the airline's accounts to compensate for their salaries, it turned out that there was not even 20% of the money that the European Commission had previously allocated as assistance! Nevertheless, the Greek authorities have not yet opened a criminal case on the embezzlement of European aid. Which only confirms my information about the serious connections of the owner of ELLINAIR Vardakis in the current government headed by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
But even more eloquent evidence that the airline will never take off again is this announcement, in which the real estate agency offers everyone to rent an empty office, in which the ELLINAIR airline has been located for many years. In the photos from this ad, you can easily find the airline logos on the walls.
According to my information, the airline stopped paying rent and utilities more than a year ago. For a while, some employees periodically walked into the office and wandered around like ghosts, not knowing what to do at all. Officially, no one fired them. But no one has paid them salaries for many months either.
But then the owner of the building, also tired of waiting for rent, changed the locks and this was the end of the actual history of ELLINAIR. It exists on paper, it still exists in the European Commission's reports on the money spent. But in reality, there is NO airline.
You may think that there is some bravado in my words about my rightness. But if this is bravado, then it is very bitter bravado. Together, we could have stopped this fraud two years ago. Perhaps the airline could resume flights. But no one just didn't care. The owner of the airline, Vardakis, began to be whitewashed in the media.
And in this regard, I would like to ask questions to the co-owners of such a popular and significant (in my opinion) aviation resource as CH-AVIATION, Thomas Jaeger and Max Oldorf. A few days after I published an article about ELLINAIR, you released a news story with a link to it. However, this news did not stand on your website even for two hours. I know for sure that when this news came out on the CH-AVIATION website, the advisor to the owner of ELLINAIR, Jordan Karatzas, called someone at CH-AVIATION with the words "Who do you believe?! To these blackmailers from the BLACKLIST.AERO?!".
Half an hour after this conversation the news was removed from your website. I have witnesses to this conversation who are ready to testify in court if necessary. And a week later, an interview with the owner of ELLINAIR, Konstantinos Vardakis, was published on your website, in which he denied the "rumors" that no resumption of the airline's flights is actually planned. And he was crucified about ELLINAIR's plans for the future. It is noteworthy that this interview is no longer available on the CH-AVIATION website.
So I want to ask you, gentlemen: do you understand that you have become a tool in the hands of swindlers? Do you realize that you have been used in the most cynical way? Was CH-AVIATION's reputation worth such an unseemly act?
For many in aviation, CH-AVIATION was not just an authoritative aviation resource, but also a certain benchmark that they wanted to look up to. Some still remember your harsh articles regarding certain problems in specific airlines. However, where did all this go when the money came to CH-AVITION?
I really hope that you, gentlemen, have not forgotten why and with what thoughts you created CH-AVIATION. And I really want to hope that money will not become a god for you, an absolute imperative, for the sake of which you can make small and large deals with your conscience.
As for the gentlemen from the European Commission, you should remember that according to the law, criminal inactivity is as legally punishable as criminal activity. It is not too late to come to your senses and count your money properly.
Artem Degtiarov, Chief editor at BLACKLIST.AERO
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