Posted by Billy K. on May 15, 2000 at 20:04:22:
In Reply to: Re: Cheap air fare posted by Nikki on May 01, 2000 at 12:27:30:
It's hard to say what is going to happen next year, as far as air service goes. The air service
situation to Greece has been anything but normal
the past few three years or so. Read on and you'll
understand why.
Tower Air, which had scheduled and charter services to Greece, went bankrupt.
Olympic got new planes this year for their transatlantic flights--you have less
mechanical cancellations and delays....but at the
same time, there are only 299 seats per plane
(A-340)compared to the 747(420).
Whereas there are less seats from New York, there
is slightly more out of Boston as Olympic
increased frequency.
It was reported the Athens newspapers that US
Airways was supposed to start serving Athens,
along with 5 other new European cities, in
November 1999, out of Philadelphia. But the lack of aircraft put that on hold. However, they did
add one of the cities recently--Manchester--so
there is hope--at least for next year to get
Athens.
And with British Airways being involved with BOTH
American and Olympic, it would be no big surprise
to see Athens service on AA next year.
A charter company, Lambda, added some charters--
twice a week this summer, from JFK, in wake of
Tower folding.
However, there are other factors affecting Greek
travel---namely Cyprus and Albania. Travel to
Cyprus has increased(in fact, 90% more people during Easter week, compared to 1999).Usually London is the route most often used, but if that is full, GUESS where a lot of people connect??
In the case of Albania, travel has been restricted, up until a few years ago, for U.S.
citizens. Since Albania will allow U.S. citizens
to stay with no visa for 30 days, all the Albanian
Americans are coming out of the woodwork to visit
home. Again, Athens is one of the few places to
connect, to get to Tirana.
Keep in mind that Athens has a new airport in the
works, which is expected to open in March 2001.
Although airport construction is going quite well,
the airlines are afraid that the highways will not
be ready in time of the opening.
So, there are a lot of things happening that are
affecting
2001 will be an interesting year for air service
in Greece. And with the possibility of much more
air service to Greece next year, you will most
likely get the dates you want at a good price,
unlike for this year.