Delos Travel History
Andreas was Born in Castoria Greece and raised in the town of Lavrion on the tip of the Attiki Peninsula about 65 kilometres outside of Athens.
Andreas attended Thessaloniki University for two years, but grew restless and decided to move to New York and work in the thriving fur industry where many Greek immigrants at the time were making their fortunes.
Airline Industry
He quickly realized that furs were not for him and he switched careers to work in the Airline Industry where he began his career at El Al as a customer service agent at JFK Airport. After about a year at El Al Andreas went to work at Olympic airlines the new high flying carrier of Greece started by Aristotle Onassis. At Olympic Andreas truly enjoyed his work, and always felt connected to his homeland of Greece. He would often tell stories of how Aristotle Onasis would arrive in JFK and make sure to stop and say hello to everyone at the airport.
“Andreas Travel Consultants”
After some years working in the airline industry, the early 70’s brought economic hardship to the USA and Andreas was laid off from his job at Olympic Airlines. He worked odd and end jobs to provide for his family including as a cashier at his good friend Gus’s coffee shop in Manhattan, a door to door salesman selling vacuum cleaners and he even sold lint brushes that he fabricated at home. Soon after he and his wife Christina decided to open their own travel agency, and in January of 1972 “Andreas Travel Consultants” was born in the living room of their home in Jamaica Hills with only a $100.00 in savings and a desire to succeed in America.
CHRISTINA BOZIOTIS
Christina was born in Lousika Greece a small town on the Pelopponesean coast near the city of Patras. She and her family emigrated to the USA shortly after the end World War 2 in search of a better life in New York, and they settled into a one bedroom apartment located in the upper west side of Manhattan after arriving on Ellis Island. After a few years Christina, her 4 siblings and her parents moved to a home in Richmond Hill, Queens.
While attending high school Christina worked part time at Lord and Taylors on 5th Avenue, and after graduating she began to work at New York Life as an administrator.
“Delos Travel Agency” is born
After a couple of years she caught the travel bug and took a position at Scandanavian Airlines working for the head of the Public Relations department. She continued to work at SAS for about 6 years until 1967 when the first of her three children was born.
Christina and Andreas worked hard together establishing Andreas Travel Consultants, and slowly but surely this little start up evolved into a thriving business. After about a year Christina and Andreas’ living room was no longer capable of handling the volume of customers stopping by to pick up their airline tickets. Andreas soon spotted a suitable location in the growing Greek American enclave of Jamaica Hills, and they established Delos Travel Agency in February 1973. Christina no longer had to worry about telling her children to stay quiet as she attended to the travel clients stopping by her home.
Delos Travel quickly grew and from time to time Andreas would invite stranded travellers to stay at his home until they could catch the next flight back to Greece, where Christina would always have a warm meal and a bed for anyone of these new found friends.
