Aristotle Onassis: The tycoon who became a legend, died today

On March 15, 1975, two years after the death of his beloved son Alexander, the largest tanker in the world, left his last breath at the age of 69. The man – legend, the businessman, the shipowner Aristotle Onassis was destined to leave his mark on the history of Greece. Twenty-five years later, in January 2000, Lloyd’s List, the world’s largest shipping newspaper, published a headline article entitled “Gigants who changed the face of shipping”, with Aristotle Onassis in the middle of the front page. The vessels of Onassis will be found in the oceans of the world, but also in the ethers. The Olympic Air Force, an air carrier with a global range, was his creation. Aristotle Onassis created the shipping business of the new globalised era, which operates institutionally to this day following the standards he set. Son of a well-off tobacco merchant, with adequate education in foreign languages and commercial practices from the Evangelical School of cosmopolitan Smyrna, will begin in Buenos Aires his business career. In 1932, the year his father died, the worst year of the international economic crisis, entered shipping by buying his first two second-hand steamers. His first two ships are named after his parents. “Onasis – Penelope” and “Onasis – Socrates” begin the journey on the Atlantic trade routes, launching the biggest myth of armament in Greece. He is the first Greek to turn to tankers, and this is his first innovation in Greek equipment. In 1938 he built in Gothenburg, Sweden his first tanker, “Ariston, ” for oil transportation between the United States and Japan. In 1939 he made the next decisive move. He establishes at the Panama consulate in London his first Panamanian company, Sociedad Maritima Miraflores Ltd., in which he carries his trucks and posts on them the Panamanian flag. The three daring business steps of Aristotle Onassis From that moment he adopts the exclusive use of offshore companies and flags of opportunity for his business activities either at sea or in the air. The first is the purchase of a fleet of 12 cargo ships Liberty American construction, which, with the right market policy, secured the capital to make the second business venture: the purchase of a T2 tanker fleet by the United States Maritime Commission. And its third innovation is turning into the German shipyards of Hamburg and Bremen with an unprecedented 18 tanker order for the next two years. The first tanker named “super tanker” worldwide is “Tina Onassis”, in 1956. File photo: Eurokinissi His friends and enemies recognize that he opens new roads in Greek-owned shipping. Onassis meanwhile, in January 1954, had made a provocative deal with Saudi Arabia, which brought him into direct confrontation with the major oil companies and the United States government. In the same year he installs the center of his operations in Monte Carlo, with the Olympic Maritime main shipping agency. Over the next few decades his floating empire has been giant. The conflict with America left him unscathed but made him turn forever towards Europe and Greece. In 1956 the Greek State purchased the privilege of exploiting the weakened national carrier T.A. Hey. (Technical Air Holdings) and establishes Olympic Aviation. It thus becomes one of only two private individuals in the world with their own airline. The other is American businessman Howard Hughes, who owns TWA. The company starts operation on 6 April 1957, with passenger service specifications currently considered unthinkable, due to costs. Very quickly Olympic opens its wings on the five continents and becomes one of the safest airlines in the world. In late 1974, Onassis denounces the contract with the Greek State and on 4 August 1975, after his death, the Olympic Air Force is transferred to the Greek State. In 1963 Onassis bought Scorpion, a small, barren and arid island across from Lefkada. He transforms him into his private earthly paradise, where international personalities of the political, business and artistic world will be magnificently hosted both on the island and in his “boat palace”, the “Christina” chamberlain. The international press is delirious. His first marriage to Tina Lebanese officially expires in 1960. It will be associated with a long and stormy bond with the great diva of the opera Maria Callas. In 1968 it reprises the world when she marries Scorpion Jackie Kennedy, widow of murdered American President John F. Kennedy. On 24 January 1973, his son, in Greek, at the age of just 25 and this will be a blow he will not be able to overcome. Aristos dies two years later, on March 15, 1975, at the American hospital in Paris. He will be buried in Scorpio, next to his son and his sister Artemis. There he will later be followed by Christina’s daughter, who leaves her last breath on November 19, 1988, in Buenos Aires. Information from Onassis Foundation