Argophilia

Αργοφιλία: For the love of the journey.

World

Argo Hotel Spotlight: Westin’s Astir Palace Near Athens

Phil Butler

This weeks resort spotlight shines on Westin’s Astir Palace in Athens. Sitting in the middle of 75 acres of lush gardens along a private peninsula, this resort offers endless vacationing possibilities for the Greece traveler. But the average traveler doing their discovery, just may not give this stunning resort a chance. Here’s the pro’s and con’s of this Athens hideaway.

AEGEAN Airlines Expands Fleet

Aleksandr Shatskih

AEGEAN Airlines has just announced increasing its fleet with the order of 7 new Airbus A320’s. According to the news, Aegean continues to grow under favorable conditions for the overall Greek travel economy. The deal with Airbus will see at least 5 Α320’s delivered on an accelerated schedule, with the remaining 2 aircraft coming before early 2016. Each airliner […]

Will Ryanair Snap Up Cyprus Airways?

Aleksandr Shatskih

New that Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary may be considering Cyprus as a Middle East with an expected acquisition of Cyprus Airways has Europe airlines buzzing. The top low cost player, may take a bite out of territories of AirAsia, Air Berlin, and even Air India Express.

EU Sanctions Can’t Keep Aeroflot’s Budget Airline Down

Phil Butler

Apparently western sanctions can’t keep a Russian airline giant down. Aeroflot’s being forced to ground fledgling budget airline Dobrolyot over EU sanctions disrupting aircraft leases may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Russia’s biggest airline.

Abacus Becomes First Foreign GDS in China

Aleksandr Shatskih

Abacus, a leading Asia-Pacific leader in travel tech, has announced being the first foreign global distribution system (GDS) to issue airline tickets customized for China.

BOC Aviation Orders $8.8 Billion of Boeing Planes

Aleksandr Shatskih

Boeing has just announced an order from BOC Aviation worth $8.8 billion. According to the news, BOC is to get 50 737 MAX 8s, 30 Next-Generation 737-800s and two 777-300ERs (Extended Range) aircraft making it the largest order ever or the airline.

La Tomatina Festival Starts This Week

Aleksandr Shatskih

This week the city of Buñol in Spain turns completely red with the annual La Tomatina Festival. The world’s biggest tomato fight this year starts August 27th.

Motel One Expands Europe Footprint

Aleksandr Shatskih

German budget hotel group Motel One has just released its 2014 half year performance results. The hotel group, which has grown to offer more than 50 hotels in 4 countries, also reached €114 million euro in sales versus €95 million in the previous year.
The group also reported on four new hotels and occupancy rates in excess of 72% across their prope

Iceland’s Bardarbunga Volcano Orange Again

Aleksandr Shatskih

Status Iceland’s huge Bardarbunga volcano is now threat level orange again after having been elevated over the weekend to red . On Saturday, the Icelandic Meteorological Office issued a red alert, which suggests an eruption of the massive volcano is imminent. Later, erroneous reports of sub-glacial lava led to the threat level being reduced.

Ryanair Issues Ice Bucket Challenge to Industry

Phil Butler

Ryanair, Europe’s leading budget airline, called out CEOs of IAG (Willie Walsh), Air France (Alexandre de Juniac), and Lufthansa (Carsten Spohr) to take the ice bucket challenge. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary literally overdid the ice bucket event in Dublin on Thursday, much to the delight of 200 employees of his airline.