Qatar Airways interested in Olympic: Greece

ATHENS (Reuters) - Qatar Airways has expressed an interest in taking part in the privatization of Greece's state-owned Olympic Airlines OLY.UL, Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said on Sunday.

Greece's conservative government launched a tender last month to split the loss-making airline into three parts and sell them off. Investors must submit an expression of interest by the end of October.

"I am in a position to say that Qatar Airways is on the list of prospective investors that have expressed interest in Olympic," Karamanlis told Greek TV station Mega during a visit to Qatar, where he met with Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

Karamanlis did not mention any other possible bidders.

Greece's government has said it aims to conclude the tender by the end of 2008, ending years of failed attempts to privatize Olympic.

The plan has been approved by the European Commission, which agreed to suspend action over illegal state subsidies if the sale went ahead.

Olympic Airlines carried 6.2 million passengers in 2007 to 36 cities and islands in Greece and 37 destinations in Europe, Asia, North America and Africa. It has losses of over 1 million euros a day.

The decision to privatize the airline has sparked a series of protests from public sector unions already angry at the ruling New Democracy party's tax increases and wage reforms.

(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)