Symi Visitor Accommodation

Between the beginning of November and the end of march, Easyjet suspends its flights to Rhodes. However they still fly to Athens from four different  countries, and you can book an onward flight to Rhodes with Aegean or Olympic.

When you do so, remember that you will need to reclaim your baggage in Athens and check it in again in both directions as Easyjet don’t do connections, even with other Easyjet flights, and allow sufficient time for this and possible flight delays.

The winter timetable is fully available now and looks like this:

Berlin Schoenfeld to/from Athens on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays

London Gatwick to/from Athens every day, with a second flight later in the day on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays

Manchester to/from Athens on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays

Milan Malpensa to/from Athens every day

Paris Orly to/from Athens on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays

Rome Fiumicino to/from Athens every day except Wednesdays.

Well no, not really – and just in case someone adds the throwaway line “I thought that was illegal in Greece”, no it isn’t, unless you try to take photos of jet fighters at an airforce base, despite what elements of the UK media may say.What I actually want to talk about in this blog is the mysterious code numbers and letters that appear on flight booking websites and travel itineraries which are meant to tell you what kind of aircraft is scheduled to operate the flight you’re looking at.
Most shorthaul flights within Europe are operated by aircraft in the Airbus 320 series or the Boeing 737 series. From the passenger’s point of view these aircraft have a single aisle down the centre with rows of three seats either side. Some airlines have just two seats each side in Business Class, others keep the usual three but leave the middle one of each block unoccupied. There are toilets and galleys at each end of the cabin, along with the main extrance/exit doors. Anything else depends on the airline – there may be inflight entertainment with screens hung over the aisle, or under the overhead luggage bins, or in the seat backs, or no entertainment at all. Seats may recline, they may be fixed, or there may be a combination of the two. Really there isn’t much to choose between the two makes from the passengers’point of view – the main thing you’ll notice is that the recent model 737s are designed to land much more firmly than the 320s – it has nothing to do with the skill of the pilot (unless it actually bounces, of course!).
The 320 series comes in various lengths with model numbers from 318 to 321, the higher the number the longer the plane, and the more rows of seats can be fitted in. Very tall people who like to sit in the emergency exit rows to get more legroom should consider that a 321 has more emergency exits than its smaller relatives, because it can hold more people. You’ll often see the 320 series described as A320 etc, the A being Airbus of course.
The 737 series has been around a lot longer, and the very oldest types (known to enthusiasts as Jurassics) no longer fly in Europe. The middle-aged Classic versions are 737-500 (shortest), 737-300 (mid size) 737-400 (largest, and most common). These are often abbreviated to B735, B733, B734. Don’t assume you can get 500 people on a 737-500 – you couldn’t, they hold about 120 in most cases. It’s just a model number. Current production is 737 Next Generation – sizes and model numbers are rational this time, and so 737-600 are the shortest going up to 737-900, directly equivalent to the Airbus range. The commonest is the 737-800, which is abbreviated to 738 or sometimes 73H. Ryanair famously fly only 737-800s, and have well over 230 of them now. Confusingly the 737-700 is abbreviated to 73G. 737-900s are very uncommon in Europe.

A few other manufacturers have planes in this general range – McDonnell Douglas, now owned by Boeing, produced the MD80 series. You can actually tell these from other planes without a pilots licence because instead of the engines being on the wings like most planes, they are close together on the tailfin.Internally they’re much the same as the Airbuses and Boeings, but you are advised to sit as close to the front as possible, they’re really quiet there, but very noisy right at the back. Some Greek-based charter airlines use them, and Alitalia and SAS still use them on scheduled flights, but they’re being phased out gradually as they are less fuel-efficient than other planes of their size.

Russian-designed planes are now unusual in Greek airspace, and I don’t know enough about them to give any meaningful details.

In a class of its own is the Boeing 757 series. These haven’t been made for ten years or so, but the design life of a plane is between 20 and 30 years, so there are still plenty around. They’re popular with charter airlines because they have exceptionally good takeoff performance on short runways, which applies to may Greek island airports, though not Rhodes. Internally they are the usual single-aisle 3 seats a side layout, but the cabin is broken up into smaller areas by toilets and galleys placed part way along, as well as at the ends. They came in 757-200 and 757-300 versions, abbreviated to B752 and B753.

Smaller sizes of plane tend to be restricted in their operating range, but you may well come across Aegean’s fleet of Avro RJ100s. These are small-to-medium jet aircraft, notable because they have two small engines on each wing instead of the more usual 1 large one on each wing  Seating is standard with a row of 3 either side of the aisle, though at the back there are two rows of only 2 seats each side, with a total of 112 seats. They are sometimes used on flights to Rhodes and to nearer European cities such as Rome.
Olympic has 9 Bombardier DH-8 Q400 propellor planes with 78 seats, they use them on domestic flights and to cities in the Balkans. They’ve operated some flights on Athens-Rhodes this year, but none are scheduled for the route this winter. They have two seats each side of a central aisle.Look for DH4 as an abbreviation.
The Brazilian company Embraer makes a range of smaller jet aircraft in various sizes from the 135 (about 37 passengers) up to the 195 (about 120 passengers). 145s (second hand from the UK) are operated by Athens Airways on domestic routes, and 190s and 195s are beginning to be operated by a number of airlines on scheduled flights to Athens of up to about 2 hours duration Royal Jordanian flying from Amman is an example, and they also have the smaller 175 model, The 190s and 195s, and their close competitor the Bombardier CRJ900, have two seats each side of a central aisle. Abbreviations are what you might expect: E45,E70, E75, E90, E95, CR9.
The CRJ900s arrive at Athens with AirOne/Alitalia from Italy and Eurowings/Lufthansa from Germany.
In addition Aegean operate a couple of ATRs, smallish propellor planes, on domestic flights, though no longer used on Rhodes-Athens they have turned up on Kos-Athens. Aegean have the ATR-72 (AT7). Olympic also have some Bombardier DHC-8 100s which are in the 30-seat category and operate into restricted and/or low traffic airports like Kastellorizo – real puddle- jumpers.You’ll ofen see one at Rhodes waiting for its next flight, and dwarfed by the jets around it. They’re abbreviated to DH8.

In a later post I’ll move on to the wide-bodied planes (two aisles).

Viking have now changed their website to reflect the inevitable flight reductions.

The main effects for people travelling to Rhodes is from Gatwick, where the Wednesday service will now end in late September, and the Saturday service almost immediately (though with a couple of remaining later flights around school half-term) This is less of a problem than it might have been because of the number of other airlines operating the route.