From the Pampas to the Aegean: The Dash 8 that served in Southern Winds and Olympic Air

The Argentine company Southern Winds began operating in 1996, establishing a hub in the Mediterranean city of Córdoba, from where it flew to the Argentine cities of Rosario, Mendoza, San Carlos de Bariloche, Tucumán, Salta, etc. The initial business plan was to provide air services to large Argentine cities without going through Buenos Aires.

For this, airplanes from the Canadian Bombardier were initially used: the CRJ jets and Dash 8 turboprops. The aircraft were operated in standard configuration of 50 and 37 passengers respectively. The Dash 8-100s were gradually arriving from June 1998 to April 1999.

Southern Winds entered the fateful year 2001 relatively well. The airline had bases in Córdoba and Buenos Aires, it operated a fleet of twelve modern aircraft, including the Dash 8 fleet, and its domestic services were completed with charters to South American countries.

At that time, the company had a 17% market share, transported one million passengers annually, had a turnover of one hundred million dollars, had earned one million in the last year, and had a capitalization of 150 million, almost entirely from foreign banks, and was in full expansion.

But two unique and complex events happened in the last part of 2001: the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the total debacle of the Argentine economy in December of that year.If the former shook the airline industry globally, the latter continued to give local aviation instability.

With regard to domestic flights, the immediate problem that Southern Winds had to face was the leasing of the Bombardier planes, which after the default and the devaluation proved impossible to maintain. All six Dash 8-100 registered LV-YTA, LV-YTC, LV-ZGB, LV-ZLZ, LV-ZOD and LV-ZPM were returned.

Specifically, and as the last scheduled flights were made for each aircraft, Southern Winds commercial service was terminated. The first to stop flying was the LV-ZOD in late March 2002, and it was effectively returned in August of that year. The LV-ZPM was decommissioned in June and flew to Canada in July. The casualties continued with the LV-YTA in July, which was returned within 11 days of causing loss of the flight line. In August, the LV-ZLZ and LV-ZGB were withdrawn and returned to Canada the same month. The last DHC-8 to fly with Southern Winds was LV-YTC, decommissioned in September 2002 and returned the same month.

Southern Winds Dash 8-100 Fleet

After being returned to Bombardier, the aircraft were stored in Canada pending re-entry into the commercial airline market. Of these, four continued to fly for the Greek company Olympic Airways. The DHC-8s that continued their operational life in Hellas would be: LV-ZGB, LV-ZLZ, LV-ZOD and LV-ZPM.

Olympic Airways

Olympic Airways was, for at least four decades, the Greek flag carrier. The livery design with the Olympic rings made her, and does, a very distinguishable representation of Greece in the skies of the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

As of December 2003, the Olympic Airways group of companies owned Olympic Airways, Olympic Aviation, Macedonian Airlines, Galileo Hellas, Olympic Fuel Company, and Olympic Into-Plane Company. Olympic Catering had been sold a few months earlier. A company formed in the 1980s called Olympic AirTours (Olympiaki Touristiki) had already been transformed into Macedonian Airlines.

In that year, the Dash 8 ex Southern Winds arrived for the Olympic Aviation division and the Greek government also restructured the company. It should be noted that the DHC-8 is an aircraft especially suitable for flying low-density routes between the Greek islands, especially those with rather spartan airport facilities.

On March 6, 2009, Hellenic Development Minister Kostis Hatzidakis announced the sale of flight operations and technical-based companies to Marfin Investment Group (MIG). Finally, on September 28, 2009, Olympic Airlines stopped flying to most of its 69 destinations, maintaining only a few connections and all mandatory public service routes within Greece, until the Ministry of Transport and Communications redistributed the routes. at the end of November. From that moment on, Olympic Airlines went into liquidation.

Olympic Air took over operations on September 29, 2009 and its first flight was on October 1, 2009.

In October 2012, Aegean Airlines announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire Olympic Air for an amount of 75 million euros, pending the approval of the European Commission. Contrary to their previous merger attempt, both carriers continued to operate under different brands and liveries after the acquisition.

Olympic Air is currently 100% owned by Aegean Airlines. It mainly serves low-density domestic destinations from Athens, Thessaloniki and Rhodes. Some of these destinations are the so-called mandatory public services to maintain air connectivity between the continent and the island territory.

The Last of Southern Winds

Of the six aircraft that flew in Argentina for Southern Winds, four continued to operate in Hellas. Of these, two left in 2017 for the Kenyan Silverstone Air Services where they ended their operational life as 5Y-SMP (ex SX-BIO and LV-ZOD) and 5Y-MHB (ex SX-BIQ and LV-ZLZ). By August 2021, the other two remaining aircraft were still in operation: the SX-BIP (ex LV-ZPM) and the SX-BIR (ex LV-ZGB). They knew how to challenge the Pampero winds, they continue doing so with Meltemi…

Pablo Luciano Potenze, Rafael Reca and Christian Amado contributed to this article.

Sources:

Airflets, Aegean Airlines, Olympic Air, JetPhotos, Dash 8 World, Roll Out, and Runway 18 (multi-issue print edition).