I have been reading that departures out of the airport in Santorini can be a chaotic nightmare. We are flying out of Santorini into Athens in a week or so, and I'm wondering how early we should arrive at the airport? Any tips for easing our departure? Thanks!
Posted by
Philadelphia, PA, USA
3397 posts
Where did you read this? Was it in regard to charter groups from UK? or those using Ryan Air?? Here are reviews and they truly are awful http://www.airlinequality.com/airport-reviews/santorini-airport/ about the long queues and dreadful restroom situation. I do think it mainly is affected during Ryan Air departures. If you're not using Ryan, check the departure schedule to see if Ryan is leaving anywhere around your departure and strategize accordingly. And use the bathroom in your hotel before going to the airport!
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area (USA)
16047 posts
Not in my experience. It's a small terminal, so it might look a bit crowded, but for a domestic flight one hour has been sufficient for me (although I have never been there in July or August). Your plane won't be a jumbo jet (big planes don't even operate from JTR), so boarding won't take long.
Posted by
Camarillo, California
3148 posts
It's a long-established and well-known fact that JTR has serious "issues". http://tinyurl.com/hvw8rcc
Hopefully the German company that is scheduled to take it and other small Greek airports into the 21st Century will be successful and will figure out how to make that very small terminal work more smoothly. As it stands, Tuesdays is the worst day of the week to depart because of all the scheduled charter flights that come and go on that day. Tuesdays apparently are the worst but other days are bad too, so be prepared to spend a minimum of 2 hours there. A recent report on TripAdvisor describes a 3-hour fiasco. Some people don't experience any problems but these issues do exist.
Posted by
OP
26 posts
We are flying Aegean air on a Friday morning at 8:45. Mostly I've been reading those same reviews on trip advisor. :)
Posted by
Camarillo, California
3148 posts
jamielynnreynolds- If you're flying on Aegean Airlines or Olympic Air back to Athens your flight may have been cancelled due to an upcoming strike. Start making "Plan B"!!
Posted by
OP
26 posts
According to the official Aegean site, the strike has been cancelled and all flights reinstated, so hopefully we won't have an issue with that!
Posted by
Camarillo, California
3148 posts
Good news!
Posted by
UK
12 posts
If you are flying out of Santorini in a week or so (in other words October) you shouldn't have a problem. The tales you hear about overcrowded terminal and long lines are during peak holiday season, mainly July and August, when charter flights and low cost carriers from the UK and northern Europe arrive. There aren't many of these flights after September. The Airbus A321 flown to Santorini by Aegean Airlines carries about 200 passengers, so unless another flight is departing around the same time, the terminal won't be crowded at all.