andrewb

How long would you estimate the customs process is in Athens? My flight from London arrives at 5:30pm and we are then taking a flight to Mykonos. Aegean has a flight at 7:00pm and Olympic has a flight at 8:05pm. Do you think I could make the 7:00pm? Is there a difference in the airlines?

Thanks to any input,
Andrew

brotherleelove2004

1.5 hours will be more than enough time to make your flight. Baggage collection and Passport control takes the most time, probably 1/2 hour. Customs is practically non-existent. In general, current opinion has Aegean being much more reliable than Olympic.

andrewb

thanks brotherleelove. I'm sure I will have more questions as the trip gets closer.

polly229

Just flew to Athens via Atlanta/Paris and we simply "walked into Greece" without ever seeing an immigration or customs official. As this was very disconcerting to me, having previously arrived from NY, I asked a couple of guys drinking coffee in an office off the customs area if we should have our passports stamped. They said "no problem" and waved us on our way. We took no more than 10 min. from the plane to the outside door. I assume this could be true of a flight originating in London as well. (Of course, when we left Greece, the immigration guy flipped through the passport until we told him it had never been stamped, we assumed because our plane came from Paris. He said, "They never stamp them in Paris", stamped us out, and we were on our way.)

I have never checked baggage to Athens on an international flight but we have found it gets into the terminal pretty fast from Aegean domestic flights. My biggest concern would be about the arrival time of your flight from London. Thought I've not yet had serious delay getting TO Europe, I've had some bad ones getting home - notably 6 hrs. on the tarmac at JFK last Sept. coming back from Amsterdam and 5 hrs. in Munich in Dec., which caused us to miss the last flight out of Dulles. The cheapest Aegean tickets (and probably Olympic) are not changeable or refundable. Just paid something under $50 to fly to Rhodes week before last, under $75 to return to Athens, so you could just blow that off if you missed the flight. But I'm not sure what the fare of a walk-up on a later flight might be.

CotswoldScouser

Of course your passport didn't get stamped arrining in Greece from France. There's no passport control between Greece and France.

But the questionm was about arriving in Greece from Britain. Britain isn't part of the Schengen agreement. So the poster will go through immigration at Athens.

polly229

Well, since we didn't do anything but change planes in France, I wasn't sure what the procedure should be. But it certainly seems like some government in Europe should have had record of our arrival and none did. Since Greek immigration seems to be aware that the French "never stamp", I wonder why they don't watch it more closely.

Also wasn't sure if this was a Schengen issue or an EU matter. Does all European inter-country travel fall under Schengen or is there any "free exchange" between EU countries not part of the Schengen Treaty?

However, I don't think Andrew will have a major time problem going through Greek customs and immigration. When we've done it, I don't think it took more than 5 min., 10 at the most.

kenderina

I travel from Spain to London and never had a problem because UK is a not Schengen country.I go there just the same as in Italy or Portugal. I think between the EU countries Schengen only applies to cargo in airports..not passengers.