Minoan Air: new greek regional startup airline

Crete's tradition on estbablishing airlines continues as Minoan Air are almost ready to commence operations.
Based at Heraklion, Minoan will connect the cretan capital with various destinations in the region both domestic and international. Moreover, their leaked initial routes schedule showed flights from Rhodes to Heraklion and Santorini. The airline will fly with Fokker-50s and have already received the first of a total of four. Early June have been set as a deadline for commencing flights so we expect during the next days the launch of their website. 
We would like to wish them all the best and see them landing here asap. 
Website 
Facebook page

Picture retrieved from Minoan Air facebook page.

April 2012 Traffic

Here are the updated stats of "Diagoras" for April 2012 traffic as released from airport authorities. The almost 50% loss of arrivals from Germany and Israel is impressive and couldn't be surpassed by a modest increase of arrivals from Sweden, Russia and England.

Arrivals Summary

	2012	2011	+/- %
Domestic Arrivals	27.108	29.475	-8.03
International Arrivals	63.124	67.692	-6.75
Total	90.232	97.167	- 7.14

International Arrivals by Country

Country	2012	2011	+/-%
England	11.930	9.963	+19.74
France	7.064	8.885	-20.5
Finland	5.931	6.513	-8.93
Sweden	5.565	3.994	+39.33
Israel	5.357	10.226	-47.61
Germany	4.612	8.206	-43.8
Italy	4.550	5.415	-15.97
Russia	3.325	1.943	+71.13
Belgium	2.970	2.505	+18.56
Denmark	2.481	1.703	+45.68
Netherlands	2.468	2.471	-0.12
Norway	1.409	605	+132.89
Lithuania	1.326	1.009	+31.42
Poland	1.272	925	+37.51
Cyprus	1.248	1.605	-22.24
Ukraine	488	297	+64.31
Luxemburg	356	484	-26.45
Albania	308	269	+14.5
Austria	307	248	+23.79
Romania	157	353	-55.52

Rossiya Routes - Summer 2012

Rossiya Airlines will fly thrice weekly from St Petersburg to Rhodes. Below is their schedule.

SAINT PETERSBURG (LED) - RHODES (valid 20/5 - 14/10)*

Outward Flight: LED-RHO

Fl. Nr.       Dep.-Arr.       A/C                  Frequency     Remarks

FV957     19:55-22:40     B763                 Th                  24/5-4/10

FV957     14:40-17:30     B763                 Su                  

FV967     23:55-03:05     A320                 Su                  27/5-7/10

Return Flight: RHO-LED

Fl. Nr.       Dep.-Arr.       A/C                  Frequency     Remarks

FV958     23:55-04:40     B763                 Th                  24/5-4/10

FV958     18:20-23:15     B763                 Su                 

FV968     04:05-09:15     A320                 Mo                27/5-7/10

For more information and/or reservations, please visit Rossiya website.

 

* Based on Rossiya official website on 28-29 April 2012.