Non Stop and one stop flights to Rhodes from Italy, summer 2012
NonStop flights to Rhodes from the UK 2012 – version 8
Non-Stop and One Stop to Rhodes from Cyprus – 2012
Connecting flights from Athens and Thessaloniki to Rhodes. summer 2012
NonStop or Direct to Rhodes from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden – 2012 version 1
Non Stop to Rhodes from Belgium and Luxembourg 2012 version 1
NonStop or Direct to Rhodes from the Netherlands 2012 – version 1
NonStop to Rhodes from Germany 2012 – Version 3
NonStop to Rhodes from Switzerland 2012, version 1
NonStop or Direct to Rhodes from Austria 2012, version 1

In other news, Strategic Airlines got off to a spectacular start with their Olympic Holidays charter flights from the UK to Rhodes yesterday – the Manchester flight was 12 hours late leaving, and the Gatwick one 18 hours. Any Symi passengers should have got to the island this morning if they were travelling from Manchester, Gatwick passengers if they weren’t moved to another flight won’t reach Symi till Friday – rotten luck if they were on a one week holiday. Hope they improve the reliability of the fleet, but they did sub-charter another plane from Spain to operate the Gatwick flight.

Taken in conjunction with the sailings by Proteus and various Blue Star line ships (same times, they just keep swapping round which ship they use) this gives between 2 and 4 sailings each way a day for the summer, with the prospect of more to come with Skiadeni.

I would strongly recommend advance booking for sailings by Dodecanese Pride and Dodecanese Express – you can book on line and collect the tickets at the ticket office where the boats berth. Last year some would be passengers were turned away at Rhodes because the boats were full on some dates.

Thanks to Mark for the advance warning of the extra sailings.

Firstly, the new Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport which was due to open on 6 June will be delayed significantly. This is because the tests of evacuating the terminal in fire and smoke conditions cannot be carried out. Rumour is that the system which is supposed to extract smoke from the building to give enough time to carry out a proper evacuation simply doesn’t work, so the tests would inevitably fail. The earliest possible opening date is now August, but industry insiders are suggesting that October is a more likely date, and even that is being optimistic. This means that flights will have to continue using Tegel and Schoenfeld airports. There are many problems with this – although Schoenfeld and Berlin-Brandenburg are on the same site, Tegel is miles away, and airlines have produced schedules allowing for additional flights and for connections, neither of which can be handled at Tegel. In addition some of the staff at Tegel will lose their jobs and are working their notice period. Once I have more details of what will happen, I’ll update the “getting there from Germany” table, in the meantime the old one is linked to below.

In the UK the dismantling of BMI-British Midland is speeding up. It has been sold by its previous owners, Lufthansa, to IAG, the parent of British Airways, and IAG will integrate the Heathrow-based operations into BA over the summer. Planes are starting to be repainted in BA colours and flights are being changed over to BA flight numbers. The relevance for Greece-bound travellers is that Aegean currently partners with BMI so you can buy a through ticket from say Rhodes to Aberdeen using BMI for the part inside the UK. This should continue for the rest of the summer timetable – up to the 23rd October, but may not do thereafter – in any case you may need a new ticket with BA flight details.
The BMI-Regional company which flies small jets between UK regional airports and also to close-by mainland European destinations has been sold to a consortium based in Aberdeen, and will probably be operated as a franchise of Flybe, so the flights will eventually have Flybe flight numbers. The BMI brand name goes with this sale. Again, it was possible to book connecting flights to Greece in conjunction with other airlines.
BMI-Baby, the third part of the BMI group is being run down rapidly and is likely to close altogether. This was a low-cost operator which this year was operating some domestic and summer sun routes out of Belfast, Birmingham and East Midlands. Most of the flights will cease on 12 September, some as early as June. They did fly to Greece but not to Rhodes or Kos.

Non Stop and one stop flights to Rhodes from Italy, summer 2012
NonStop flights to Rhodes from the UK 2012 – version 8
Non-Stop and One Stop to Rhodes from Cyprus – 2012
Connecting flights from Athens and Thessaloniki to Rhodes. summer 2012
NonStop or Direct to Rhodes from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden – 2012 version 1
Non Stop to Rhodes from Belgium and Luxembourg 2012 version 1
NonStop or Direct to Rhodes from the Netherlands 2012 – version 1
NonStop to Rhodes from Germany 2012 – Version 2
NonStop to Rhodes from Switzerland 2012, version 1
NonStop or Direct to Rhodes from Austria 2012, version 1

Dodecanese Seaways have some additional sailings on Sunday 6th May only – the Express will operate Symi- Rhodes-Symi-Nissyros-Symi-Rhodes-Symi and return instead of the original schedule, and Panagia Skiadeni will do Rhodes-Panormitis-Symi-Rhodes to replace it.

Anyone on Symi fancy Sunday lunch in Nissyros?

The timetable is much the same as now, (Tuesday afternoon from Piraeus, calling at Symi around 8am on Wednesday morning, returning from Rhodes on Wednesday afternoon), and will be operated by Diagoras which will be back from overhaul.

My understanding is that with the dispute between Dodekanisos Seaways and the Symi Municipality unresolved, the ferry company has published this timetable so that the other islands they serve can get on with their business. As far as service to/from Chalki, Tilos, Nissyros, Kos, Kalymnos, Leros, Lipsi and Patmos is concerned, what has been announced is pretty much what was operated last year.

However those unused to the brinkmanship that Greek ferry operators have traditionally followed in announcing their plans are understandablypanicking about the effect on their holidays to Symi. In the words of the Hitchhikers Guide, “Don’t panic”.

Firstly ANES intend to resume sailings with the Proteus once her overhaul in the Syros shipyard is completed, secondly the Blue Star Ferries service that calls at Symi is a government subsidised one and once the government gets its act together you’ll see the summer timetable for that service, thirdly the Tilos Sea Star has in previous years made calls at Symi but last summer was prevented by objections from other operators. If these operators have no equivalent sailings they have no grounds for objection, so it would probably re-appear. And that’s apart from the simple fact that Dodekanisos Seaways have to send their ships somewhere as they cost money even tied up.

Ferry wars? Well, the Symi Municipality is the largest shareholder in ANES and many islanders own shares as individuals. The Spanos family from Rhodes own Dodekanisos Seaways as well as other Rhodes based businesses. If the Spanos boats Dodekanisos Express and Panagia Skaideni move on to the Rhodes-Symi route nearly full time, they will remove sufficient traffic from ANES to force it out of business altogether. There may be a compromise that is acceptable to all parties but if so, it hasn’t appeared yet…….

Hopefully this won’t take too long and she will return to service shortly.

Another Symi regular, the Blue Star Diagoras, is also away for docking and the Blue Star Naxos is substituting.

The Dodekanisos Pride will sail daily from Rhodes at 08:30 for Patmos (Agathonisi instead on Mondays) and call at Symi every day except Wednesdays.

The return sailing calls at Symi at 17:45 except Mondays and Wednesdays.

The Dodekanisos Express will operate an 07:30 Symi-Rhodes, then Rhodes-Panormitis-Symi-Rhodes, then 18:30 Rhodes-Symi on Saturdays,  Sundays, and Mondays.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays she operates 07:30 Symi Rhodes and then heads off to Halki, Tilos, Nissyros and Kos, and doesn’t reappear at Symi until the next day.

On Wednesdays there is an 09:00 Rhodes-Panormitis-Symi-Rhodes, followed by 18:30 Rhodes-Symi

On Fridays just the 18:30 Rhodes-Symi operates.

So a lot of the gaps have been filled especially if the Wednesday morning southbound/Wednesday afternoon northbound sailings by Diagoras are taken into account.

We still don’t know what Panagia Skiadeni will be doing, or what ANES will respond with.