ON THE OLD ATH ROUTES Y CLASS DID NOT HAVE PTV'S BUT AUDIO WAS AVAILABLE. C CLASS PASSENGERS WERE OFFERED THE USE OF SONY WATCHMANS WITH A CHOICE OF FILMS TO WATHC IN ADDITION TO THE AUDIO
They operated one A320 her registration was G-OUZO. A quick search on a.net shows she also flew in VS colours under the registrations SX-BSV and EI-VIR.Her name was Spirit of Melina. She was an ex Southeast European Airways a/c before arriving with VS. She was sold onto Airtours who then became My Travel and she is now flying with My Travel Lite (the my travel LCC) as G-JOEM. She was delievered to Southeastern European in 1993 from Airbus.
They had one A321 whose registration was G-VATH. She was purchased brand new from Airbus and her pre delievery reg was D-AVZB. She entered the fleet in May 2000 and was painted in the silver livery. Her name was Helenic Beauty. She is now flying with Volare Airlines of Italy as EI-IMA as of May 2003 (still there). She may have spent time with Monarch inbetween. I believe VS purchased 2 A321's at the same time- one went to VS (G-VATH) the other in a one class layout to Virgin Sun (G-VKIS). G-VKIS is now with LTE of Spain who have renamed recently to Volar (rather confusing hey!)
The a/c operated in a 2 class layout: economy and a business class. Economy pax had the drop down screens from the luggage bins in the a321 and these were spaced out every 5 rows or so. Business pax had sony watchmen services used. The route i believe was operated on a twice daily basis with one departure from LHR around 11pm landing in ATH at around 2am and returning to the UK for 8am the next morning and out of LHR at 11am returning to LHR for the 11pm flight(or something like that- i have an old VS timetable somewhere will look up). The route was operated from both LGW and LHR. I think Hellas Jet (division of CY took over LHR-ATH in 2001 from VS). The flight numbers were something along the lines of VS1000-10004. I hope all this helps!
Early pics show G-OUZO operating MAN-lGW though not sure how correct this is!
I think that Southeast European Airways were a Greek company set up to operate the ATH-London route in conjunction with VS. Prior to the A320 a 737-400 was used initially on the route. This was G-UKLB which was leased from AirUK Leisure and also carried SEEA titles (see a.net)
having done a bit of quick research, I think G-VATH is now EC-IMA with Volar and G-VKIS is EC-ILG with the same airline. Both a/c were in storage for most of the time prior to their current leases.
Ahhh yes it all comes flooding back to me! There was the SEEA logo on the side of the A320 and on all the adverts etc! I remember now- back when i was a virgin virgin fan!hehe!
Oppps my mistake! I meant to put EC-IMA sorry team! What through me was the guy who says the a/c is ex G-VATH spells Volare with the 'e' as the italian airline does not without the e as Volar (LTE) do! So one would presume that both KIS and ATH were sold to LTE together! Appologise for my silly error! (hate getting info wrong lol!)
Ooo I see the pics!Now then a quick searh of G-OUZO shows here according to a.net operating to MAN from LGW? IS this correct? VS to MAN domestic???
Some information on SEEA. They were founded in 90 to compete with Olympic on domesitc and interantional routes. They managed to launch domestic routes but couldnt start up int routes on there own which is what they wanted.So they looked for help at same time VS wanted to start European services. So they started a franchise agreement with VS on the LON-ATH route. The a/c was a SEEA a/c they had 3 (other 2 op by ambassador) but for ease she became G-OUZO. SEEA went bankrupt in 96 and VS continued to operate the route themselves.
I did a bit of investigation re the comment about G-OUZO operating MAN-LGW. G-VATH entered service on 1st May 2000 so I presume 'UZO will have been operating for her next operator by then, ie not doing a VS flt.