CORRECTED - FACTBOX-Greece's Olympic Airlines to shut down, relaunch

(Corrects number of Olympic Airlines staff in 13th paragraph)

Sept 17 (Reuters) - Greece on Wednesday announced it will close down ailing state carrier Olympic Airlines [OLY.UL] and relaunch it under a new structure after failed attempts to find a buyer. [ID:nLH463836]

Following are facts about Olympic Airlines and its predecessor Olympic Airways.

HISTORY

- Olympic Airways was founded by shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis in 1957 after he took over Greek national airline TAE.

- Onassis sold Olympic back to the government for about $68 million in 1974 after his son Alexander died in a plane crash.

- Mismanagement led the carrier into financial hardship in the 1980s. Unions often struck for trivial issues. Staff numbers were swollen by vote-hungry governments and the airline became severely indebted.

RESTRUCTURING

- In 1994, the EU Commission requested the airline's restructuring and an end to government subsidies. The plan called for early retirement of staff, a three-year wage freeze, a 158 million euro capital injection and debt relief.

- By 1996 the Commission realised the plan was not being fully implemented and prohibited further capital injections.

- Brussels approved another restructuring plan in 1998. A year later the government hired British Airways subsidiary Speedwing to turn around Olympic but the plan failed.

- A 2000 tender to sell Olympic proved fruitless.

- A further restructuring in 2003 established Olympic Airlines, a slimmed down version of Olympic Airways, and the government launched a new sale effort.