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Astra Airlines

Defunct Greek airline (2008-2019)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ750308 ↗
Source-derived summary

Astra Airlines was a Greek regional airline headquartered in Thessaloniki and based at Thessaloniki International Airport.

History

The carrier was founded by Ioannis Zlatanis, founder of Interaviator Ltd, and Anastasios Zirinis, former CEO of Olympic Aviation. It launched operations on 5 July 2008, flying from Thessaloniki to Rhodes.

On 9 November 2019, it was reported that Astra Airlines faced severe financial difficulties and was searching for an investor to maintain its current operations. The airline grounded all flights on the same day until further notice. On 14 November 2019, IATA announced that it had suspended the airline and warned Greek travel agents to stop selling tickets on the airline with immediate effect.

On 18 November 2019, it was reported that the airline would not resume operations for good.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Astra Airlines” is defunct Greek airline (2008-2019). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Astra, Airlines and Defunct, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008, 2019—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2008-01-01. For this dossier, Astra, Airlines and Defunct is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “defunct Greek airline (2008-2019)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q750308. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2008 and 2019.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Astra Airlines”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Astra Airlines primary sources, Astra Airlines archive and Astra research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Astra Airlines”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Astra Airlines” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.