Arrive Athens airport and fly to Santorini question

What time of year?

Is London your origin, or a transfer point?

Can you eliminate the checked baggage?

We did it with 90 minutes but had only carry on luggage. We were fine but I think 2 hours without checked luggage is what is the standard recommendation. I don't know how much time picking up luggage adds to the equation as I have not done it.

I would go for the later flight. A 4-hour wait is not that long, and you connection will NOT be protected if your plane arrives late in Athens (I am assuming that you are looking at a separate ticket to Santorini). The flight to Santorini is very short, so you will still get in at a convenient hour.

London is a connecting flight from the US. We will be going in May. We are going to try to have just carry on for our trip...because I understand the additional hassle of going through security check lines again.

In July, I bought the slightly higher priced later flight which allowed for a free change. Arrived at 10am (with checked luggage) and, although booked on the 5:30 flight, made the change at the airport and was easily on the 1:30 flight.

Athens airport is quite efficient. On arrival you will pick up your checked bags. that process takes about 20 minutes max.

Passport control takes less than 20 minutes unless there are three transcontinental jets all arriving at the same time. Nevertheless it is not a long process.

You exit arrivals area through a large door. Customs is located there. One door says nothing to declare. There is no one there so you just walk out and you are in the terminal.

Departures is one floor up. go upstairs. I would suggest your use Olympic Air or Sky Express which are both Greek airlines with good reputations. Sky express also had a lounge which is a nice bonus. Both allow you to check in Electronically 3 days before your flight. No need to line up to check in.

There are machines where you select your air line and print luggage tags. There are several of them so chances are you will have to wait no more than 5 minutes to get the luggage tags. Nearby there is a luggage drop off machine.
Next proceed to security. There are lots of stations and we have never had to wait more than 5 minutes for security screening. You are now in the Departure lounge area. Find you gate then wait.

That whole process normally takes about an hour.

Athens airport uses shuttle buses to take you to the aircraft so you do need to be at the departure area well before the boarding time.

Since you are flying into London you might want to search for a direct flight to Santorini. Santorini is a big attraction and you will find there are several direct flights a day from London. You probably need way more than 2 hours for a connection there. Santorini has passport control as well.

I have seen from a number of trip reports that there has been little Covid testing at Athens airport. It seems the Greeks are taking the attitude if you can get Covid clearance before you flight from home then there is not much point in doing additional testing on arrival.
Hope this helps.

I personally would take the later flight. We were in Greece in September, flew to both Naxos and Istanbul from Athens. Going to Naxos went smooth but when we went from Santorini to Istanbul it took awhile to get through everything in Athens to catch our flight to Istanbul. Slow lines, gate change.....it would've been super stressful if we had not spaced our flights apart.

As one poster mentioned, this is an excellent example of when paying a bit more for a flex ticket, one that allows a change without further cost, is worth the investment. Likely it is still a cheap ticket, you will waste way more cash on other things during the trip. Purchase the flex ticket for a later flight, move it up if it works out.

Just an add-on to Paul's good advice ... he mentions a "Flex" ticket. When you use Aegean/Olympic airlines (which are the same thing now ) the ticket level that allows a checked bag is called "Comfort Flex". Even if you say you have a bag of 20-22" but plan to take it on board, you must get that "comfort flex" ticket level -- because some plane models do not permit carry-ons of that size. Likewise, check the websites of both other airlines to be sure of the ticket level that includes a suitcase. The word "flex" has to do with the re-booking/flight change capability.

Thank you for all this advice-- I am learning so much! Will get a flex ticket.