All direct flights to Greece from the UK & Ireland

James Says

Direct flights to Greece

Some of the reasons for Greece's current economic woes can be seen in the travel statistics, which show a constant decline in the number of British people taking flights to Greece over the last decade, despite a general rise in the overall numbers of flights being taken as a whole, at least up until 2008.

There are many possible reasons for this -- because of the relatively longer distances involved in flying to Greece as opposed to closer destinations like Spain and Portugal, flights to Greece are generally quite a bit more expensive, and once you get there, typical holiday travel costs such as food and accommodation are also less competitive than many other European countries.

This situation may change if Greece is able to leave the euro and return to a devalued drachma, but in the meantime the range of flights to Greece remains less than what it might otherwise be. Having said that, the big change over the last couple of years has been the arrival of budget airlines offering cheap flights to a range of mainland and island destinations throughout the country, even if most of these routes are at the expense of the traditional leisure airlines like Thomson and Thomas Cook.

Prior to this, easyJet had long-established flights to Athens from London, but very few routes beyond this, whereas Greece had for a long time remained a Ryanair free country, largely because the national airport authority did not want to do business on Ryanair's terms. Since establishing a small network of routes between the UK/Ireland and Greece, Ryanair have also opened up a new destination at Araxos on the Peloponnese peninsula.

Naturally, the price of flights to Greece shoots up during the summer holiday season, leaving only a relatively small shoulder period on each side, as most routes do not operate through the winter. To reach Greek islands during this winter period, you may well need to fly to Athens first, and then take a local connection, as these internal flights operate all the time. Another option is to transfer by ferry, a slower but incredibly scenic way to appreciate the Greek landscape.

Connecting flights to Greece

As the vast majority of flights to Greece are aimed at the leisure market, relatively few flight connections are available to any of the popular Greek island destinations, unless you're happy to connect through Athens, an option which is only really available from London.

Generally, your best bet to reach the less popular Greek destinations is to be prepared to make a long drive to either Gatwick or Manchester airports, as flights from Manchester and Gatwick are available to most of these places.

If you are looking for flights to Athens from UK regional airports, then you should be able to find flight connections via the usual European hubs such as Paris or Amsterdam - but these connections are generally not available to other Greek destinations, unless you want to change aircraft twice.

Alternatives

There are no obvious alternative ways of getting to Greece, as Greece is one of the most geographically isolated countries within the European Union. To the north sit the various Balkan countries, which are far more difficult to get to than Greece. Whilst you certainly could combine a trip to Greece and Italy by taking a ferry from one of the Italian Adriatic ports, this would be a long way round if you just wanted to get to Greece alone, as most flights to Italy from the UK are concentrated on northern or western Italy.

Your main alternative option is to look at flights to Turkey, and to transfer by sea to any of the islands on the eastern Aegean. Whether this works out as a more convenient or better value option is highly debatable, but it would give you the opportunity to see two incredibly diverse countries.

I've often felt that Athens should be a natural city destination for Flybe from airports like Birmingham and Newcastle, but unfortunately they have stuck to more conservative places in France. However, with their new Embraer jets, they have at least ventured as far as Dubrovnik, so who knows what they might do if economic conditions improve.

I will admit that I am waiting to see if Greece leaves the euro to make my first trip there (Mark went on  school trip many moons ago).

The kind of itinerary I would look at is starting with Corfu, and then heading through Meteora for the stunning cliff-top monasteries featured in the Bond film 'For your Eyes Only'. From here, I'd head via the Rio-Anirrio Bridge and the Corinth Canal (I love my engineering!) to the capital Athens, and then hit the ferries, with Santorini being my must-do island.

for the landlubbers amongst you, I'm afraid the Greek rail network is pretty sparse, but there are at least around 6 trains each day linking Athens with the second city of Thessaloniki. The OSE (Greek Rail) website is awkward to use, but this is the English home page - ignore the ads in Greek!