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The 3rd regional heat of the Routes Marketing Awards took place last week in Prague with Athens Airport emerging victorious with the overall prize.

On the night there were awards presented for four categories which were Western Europe, Scandinavia & the Baltics, Central & Eastern Europe and Mediterranean & Southern Europe. Winning Airports included Riga, Brussels, Athens and Hamburg.

Not content with just winning the Mediterranean & Southern Europe category, Athens Airport won the overall 1st prize on the night. This means that Athens will now move to the next stage of the competition which will be held in Beijing and is known as the Routes World Airport Marketing Awards. Here Athens will compete against an American, Asian and African Airport.

These awards are considered to be one of the most important in the airline industry. All nominations are made by airlines.

In a recent appearance on the ITV breakfast show, Martin Lewis spoke of the great car hire deals available this summer for UK holiday makers. Lewis renowned for his cash saving exploits advised early booking to get the best deals.

He pointed to the weak sterling rate as a plus when hiring a car. As an example he took a return taxi journey from Malaga Airport to Marbella which would cost on average around 100 euro return. You can hire a car for as little as ten pounds per day so a weeks car hire could be obtained for around seventy pounds.

So this represents a saving on the taxi fare but also leaves you with a rental car for the week so the savings overall could be much more. Lewis also pointed out that public transport can be severely lacking in certain areas.

Many major car hire firms are warning customers in advance that there may be a shortage of rentals cars in busy locations during peak periods. Book your Athens car hire today to make sure you get your 1st choice.

Many major car hire firms have had to dramatically reduce the size their car hire fleets this year. The downturn in the economy meant numbers were no longer viable.

This has made little difference to the consumer in off peak times however as we head into the summer peak regular car hire customers may find it difficult to get their preferred choice of rental.

Here at Car Hire Athens we are recommending that all our car hire customer’s book early this year to avoid disappointment. It is also much easier to find a cheap deal when booking early. Last minute booking is not recommended if it is avoidable at all.

Many major car hire companies have talked about the possibility of running out of stock in busy holiday areas this summer. Search for summer holiday car hire now and get the deal you want.

The German Airline Lufthansa this week reached a fifty year milestone at Athens Airport. At 2pm a Lufthansa flight left Athens amid celebratory scenes. Flowers were presented to the planes crew by Paulo Yoshikawa to mark half a century of connecting Athens with the world.

The first Lufthansa flight departed from Athens Airport on May 11th 1959. This plane had arrived from Hamburg the previous day before returning stopping off at Frankfurt and Dusseldorf along the way. There were twenty one Greek officials on board the flight.

From the 13th of May 1959 Lufthansa began a regular service. The cost of the service when worked out with today’s currency rates was a whopping five hundred and sixty two euro.

The route has proved immensely popular over the years carrying millions of people. The airline is credited with helping build tourism in Greece. There are now six flights a day operated by Lufthansa from Athens Airport to Germany. Check out the website www.50flightyears.gr for more information

The Greek Airline Hellenic Imperial Airways has announced plans for a regular Birmingham Airport to Athens Airport route. The flight will operate four times a week utilizing a four hundred and fifty six seater jet.

The move certainly shows confidence in the airlines belief in the success of the route. Two of the flights will connect to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia from Athens. A spokesman for the UK route Ahmed Chowdhury said that he believed there is certainly a market in Birmingham for such a route pointing to the large Greek population in the area.

He also believes that the large number of Muslims in the west midlands will make the connecting Saudi Arabia flight a popular choice. Jeddah is considered to be a gateway to Mecca which considered by many Muslims to be a place you must visit at least once.

The airline also has plans to offer a flights from Athens to Morocco which provides another travel option for UK tourists. The Athens-Birmingham flights will run on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Hellenic Imperial Airways don’t consider themselves a budget airline and will offer premium seats as well as economy seats.

When you hire a car in Athens through with us, you also have the option of car insurance provided by our partner Car Hire Insurance. This product provides great piece of mind and can be added in stage 3 of the car hire booking process. This covers you for all the rental car excess and extras such as keys and tyres.

You may of course feel it is not necessary. I have hired cars myself on certain occasions without using it. If you are a good driver and familiarize yourself with the road rules in Greece then you may feel that you can take your chances.

When you pick up your Athens rental car be sure to check that there is no damage on the hire car which has not been already recorded by the rental car agent. If you find something then bring it to the attention of staff.

Always be aware of what areas of Greece you are in when it comes to parking. Park in official car parks if possible. Put in your wing mirrors as an extra precaution in case it’s a tight fit.

Read up on speed limits in Greece and try stick to the best roads possible rather than using short cuts with bad roads where you may end up with a chip flying at your windscreen or worse.

Of course you can not account for other drivers so you can never be fully risk free. CarHireInsurance.ie offer a good product and is something certainly worth considering for your own piece of mind.

Strange things are afoot at Athens Airport. An incident involving a UFO in November 2007 has recently come to light. A pilot working for Olympic Airways first reported the sighting which was later confirmed by Athens Airport staff. The Plane was heading for London.

The object was also seen by pilots on two other planes. It was reported to look like a big star which was not following any direction pattern. Two jets were deployed to investigate the sighting however the object disappeared before they got a chance.

The sighting was kept under wraps for over a year. Recently official document and audio conversations have been released. The story has received a lot of coverage all over the world.

Low cost Cheap Athens Airport Car Hire all year round.

An official from Olympic airlines confirmed that it was the 1st ever incident of its kind to occur to an Olympic airlines pilot. Government officials believe the object was most likely the planet Venus.

In 1991 a pilot reported having a near miss with an unidentified object at London Heathrow. The Alitalia pilot spoke of seeing a similar object to the one in Athens which had no exhaust.

Most people were aware of the uproar that occurred last year when Britney Spears was spotted driving with her child on her lap. This week it’s Nicole Kidman who finds herself in the parenting bad books due to not strapping herself and her baby into her hire car with a seatbelt. Her husband Keith Urban also neglected to buckle up.

While it certainly does not compare with what Britney did, it is still a very important issue. The family was in Spain at the time where seatbelts laws are not as heavily enforced as in other countries. Greece has steeped up its seatbelts laws considerably since the mid nineties.

Always remember to wear your seatbelt no matter how short your trip is. If you choose to hire a car in Athens and have a baby with you then make sure you check the individual prices of baby seats from each supplier. It may seem like a small thing but it is something which can vary in price quite a bit between each supplier.

That’s the great thing about our car hire cost comparison engine. You can easily compare all aspects of your car hire from the worlds top car hire companies on one website.

The Vatican returned a marble head to Athens last week. The head was then fitted onto its rightful place (the body of a youth carrying a tray of sweets as an offering to Athena). Officials in Athens are hopeful that this gesture will just be the start of retrieving lost treasures. The head has been handed over in a one year loan deal.

The British museum in London holds many artifacts from the Parthenon which officials in Greece are eager to retrieve. Michalis Liapis the culture minister of Greece spoke of how he hopes the example set by the Vatican will lead others in a similar situation to have a rethink.

Two and a half thousand years ago the Parthenon was built in honor of the Greek goddess Athena. In 1687 Venetian forces attacked the Parthenon with cannon fire during Ottoman occupation.

Over a century later Lord Elgin took large pieces of the temple which he later sold to the British Museum. The British Museum has been steadfast in its refusal to return the pieces to Greece saying that the pieces were acquired in a perfectly legal manner and are available to see free of charge for visitors.

A spokeswoman for the British Museum Hannah Boulton said that the return of the marble head by the Vatican has not put any further pressure on them to return anything and has not changed their position.

Almost half of the Parthenon frieze is located at the British Museum. Other pieces can be seen at the Louvre as well as a handful of other museums.

Sources at the Vatican say the loan may be renewed at the end of the year and there is a possibility that other pieces of Parthenon sculptures they have may also be loaned out.

Staff at Olympic Airlines staged a 24 hour strike at Athens Airport last week on Thursday Oct 30th. Over 100 flights were affected amid the protest aimed at the Governments plans to privatize Olympic Airlines.

Qatar Airways are believed to be one of the interested parties. Workers have been promised compensation however this has done little to alter the angry mood of staff.

Affected routes included

• Athens to Milan
• Athens to Rome
• Athens to Frankfurt
• Athens to London
• Athens to Belgrade
• Athens to Brussels

On Wednesday Oct 29th many Olympic Airline staff members protested at taxi ranks outside Athens Airport however no flight interruptions were caused by these actions. A plane owned by the Pantheon (company managing Olympic Airways) was daubed with slogans protesting against the Government.

An Olympic Airlines technician Kleanthis Tratras spoke out strongly against the government’s privatization plans saying that staff would not give up until their voices are heard.