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Enough time to catch connecting flight?

Posted by on

Hello all,

We are headed to Greece in a few weeks. We are flying from Newark, NJ, to Athens (via Emirates) and then to Chania, Crete (via Aegean). We land in Athens at 4 pm on a Sunday, and our flight to Chania is at 6 pm. Based on research, I thought this would be enough time to make the connection; we will check luggage. However, now I am finding info that has me concerned that I've cut it too close. Does anyone have experience with this type of connection? What are your thoughts on making our connection? If we don't make the 6 pm flight, there is a flight at 10:00 pm, which means we will have a very long time in Athens airport. Thanks in advance.

Posted by
2287 posts

Emirates and Aegean do not have a codeshare agreement so you will have to pick up your luggage in Athens and check it in for Chania.
With this luggage to be picked up and re-checked, and coming from a non-Schengen area, you are at the limit of what is reasonable in terms of the time between two flights with about zero safety margin.

A delay of 30 minutes or more with your Emirates flight and you are at high risk of missing your flight to Chania.

So it's up to you.

That being said, have you checked that there are no Sky Express flights to Chania between 6:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.?

Posted by
5407 posts

Then you may have a problem. Because you have to clear passport control, get your checked luggage, check in that luggage with the other airline, clear security and THEN get to your gate. Plus, being on a separate tickets, if you miss the second flight, the airline has no requirement to get you on the next flight, and would charge for a new ticket.

Posted by
6713 posts

The good news is that ATH is a pretty small airport with just one terminal so you won't spend much time just covering distance. Still, you'll have trouble if your arriving flight is delayed. Probably too expensive now to rebook to that later evening flight on to Chania, might as well hope for the best -- which often happens, believe it or not. ;-)

Posted by
11852 posts

Where are you sitting on the Emirates flight?

If you are toward the back of a plane that seats 300+, getting off, through passport control, to bag retrieval, to bag drop off, through security and to the gate looks like a project that requires perfection at every step to be successful.

If you are in biz class, your chances look a bit better.

As unappealing as sitting around for a 9PM flight is, it might be better to plan for it, have dinner at the airport.
The alternative is probably paying extra to get onto the 9 or 10PM flight ( if they have seats)

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