Zela Aviation exhibits ex-Olympic B727

The Boeing 727, which was parked at the disused Athens-Elliniko airport and purchased by Zela Aviation, will serve as a static display in the future.

Zela Aviation has in 2023 purchased two aircraft from the old Elliniko airport. One is the BAC1-11, which was restored and successfully installed in Lavrio and has been completed since December 2023. The second aircraft is the Olympic Airways B727, which has been out of service for several decades and was moved to Vouliagmenis Avenue in March 2024 from the runway of the old Elliniko Airport, where it had been parked since its decommissioning . From April 2024, maintenance work on the B727 will continue, which will be fully completed in the coming months, and there will be an official event with government representatives in May 2024. 

The rescue and promotion of the two landmark aircraft was personally undertaken by the Cypriot businessman Andreas Christodoulides, the current owner of the Cypriot private aircraft company “ZELA AVIATION”. “These planes are historic for Greece and Hellenism; the Olympic aircraft should be remembered by the world and our children and grandchildren,” he said. The aim was to purchase them for the public and to appreciate the aircraft. A great admirer of Onassis, Christodoulides said he bought the planes so that the Greeks would not forget them – “so that the world would remember Elliniko, the former main airport of Athens, Olympic and Onassis. Andreas Christodoulides explains that he is “proud of Greece and it is as if I had bought the Acropolis and made it accessible to Greece and the aviation industry”.

Anyone interested in the old Elliniko airport will find see this link for an extensive photo report at Aviation.Direct.