Richard1148

I am trying to arrange our itinerary for a trip to Greece next May. I would like to take advantage of Aegean's 19 Euro fares while they are available. I have already seen some of them are not available now for certain dates in May that I was considering to either Rhodes or Mykonos. We are scheduled to arrive in Athens from the US at 10:50 AM. I would like to go ahead and fly to one of the islands the same day and save Athens for last to avoid any problems getting back there for the flight home. What would be the earliest recommended time for a flight to one of the islands?

monicapileggi

Here's a portion from my 2001 trip to Greece:

2 May 2001: We arrived at the new airport in Athens. It took about 10 minutes for the plane to taxi to its gate. Then the flight attendant forgot to press a button to release the door, so that was another 10 minutes or so waiting to get off the plane. We were hoping to catch the 11:20am flight to Santorini, as we were booked on the 3pm flight. No such luck! We waited almost 4 hours in the airport. I was very tired.

The new airport was pretty nice, but the seats in the waiting areas are terrible! They were so uncomfortable. I found an ATM machine and took out some money. I decided to wait to get my Greek money until I got to Athens instead of getting some from my bank. Apparently, the exchange rate in the U.S. is pretty bad as only a certain amount is allowed out of the country. The airport building is very long. We had to walk from one end to practically the other end to catch the local flight.

We flew to Santorini on a small ATR, which carries about 50 passengers. The flight was about 50 minutes long. We were on the right side and could see Oia and Fira prior to landing. A few minutes before landing, the flight attendant stated not to take any photographs. There were military planes near the airport. Tony said to me, "They probably don't want people to know that they are using out of date equipment!"

I would give yourself 2-3 hours between flights, but am stating this based on our flight to Santorini.

http://greece2001mjp.homestead.com/grjournal.html

Monica

doug_stallings

I'd recommend you give yourself at least 90 minutes between flights (and probably 2 hours if you want to be safe), if only because you will have to claim and then re-check your luggage for the Aegean flight, and the check-in lines can be kind of slow there---at least that was my experience this last May. I suspect you could make a tighter connection, but I'd hate to chance it. The one thing I did notice about Aegean is that they sometimes don't post all their flights until later in the year. I bought my tickets for May in February and still go the cheaper fare.

Richard1148

Thanks Monica and Doug. I was hoping that 2 hours would be sufficient.

sheila

I've done it twice, both times with the luggage booked through; and, I have to admit, both times in the early hours- 6am sort of thing.

I would say it took 20 minutes tops, both times. It's Greece however, so I wouldn't count on that.

Heimdall

I would have thought now is a bit early to book domestic flights for next May. It's even possible that takeoff times will change when they publish their Summer 2007 schedule (that happened to me once with Olympic).

For those planning to travel next May, be aware that the UEFA Champions League soccer finals will be held in Athens on May 23rd, when hotel rooms in the city will be heavily booked. May 28th is Holy Spirit Day, and flights and ferries to the islands that weekend will also be heavily booked.