Symi Visitor Accommodation

This post will look at flights from the UK to Rhodes, either direct or via Athens.

In 2010 the Greek Orthodox Easter and the Western Easter coincided, right at the beginning of April, and the earliest direct flights from the UK to Rhodes (by EasyJet) started in time for people to go and see a Symi Easter, which is something very special but not for those who dislike loud bangs. Of course it is possible to travel to Rhodes year-round via Athens, and we’ll look at this option first. The main disadvantage of travel via Athens is timing – unless you travel overnight or on a very early morning departure from London or Manchester, you will end up on a connecting flight from Athens to Rhodes that gets in after the last ferry has sailed for Symi. (except on Wednesdays when the last ferry is 10:30pm) However for those who have waited an hour or more at Rhodes airport to get their baggage back off a direct flight from the UK or Ireland, the bliss of arriving off a domestic flight from Athens to no immigration queues and your bag back in under 15 minutes counts for something.

Some of the direct flights to Rhodes dump you there in the middle of the night and this can be even worse than arriving in time to get a good night’s sleep.

British Airways fly three times a day from Heathrow to Athens year-round, with an extra flight on Saturdays in the summer. They also offer connecting flights on the same ticket from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Manchester through Heathrow, with your baggage checked through to and from Athens so you don’t have to pick it up and check in again at Heathrow. However you will need to collect your bags in Athens and re-check them onto your domestic flight to Rhodes, which you will need to buy separately. You will need to allow sufficient time in Athens to do this and to allow for any flight delays. BA fares to Athens include 23kg hold baggage allowance plus one piece of hand baggage (more of both if you fly Club class) and a hot meal and drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) on board. They use Heathrow Terminal 5

Aegean Airways fly twice a day from Heathrow to Athens (they transferred their UK operation from Stansted to Heathrow in October 2009) and have an arrangement with BMI which allows through booking/ticketing and through checking of baggage for connecting flights from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Belfast City, Dublin and Aberdeen. Since Aegean also operate flights from Athens to Rhodes, they can offer through bookings on one ticket from UK/Irish airports to Rhodes, with baggage transferred through at Heathrow and Athens. Because Aegean are a member of the Star Alliance of airlines  they have close ties to Lufthansa and its subsidiary airlines apart from just BMI, you can also buy flights involving a Lufthansa flight from various UK airports to Frankfurt or Munich and Aegean flights onwards, but for these flights you will do better looking at an on-line travel site than the airline’s own website. Aegean fares to Athens include 20kg hold baggage allowance plus one piece of hand baggage (more of both if you fly Business class) and a hot meal and drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) on board. They use Heathrow Terminal 1.

Olympic Air fly 3 times a day from Heathrow to Athens on their summer timetable up to the end of October.

You can book tickets through from the UK to Rhodes using Olympic’s domestic flights in Greece, and baggage is checked through.

In an earlier  blog post I said I would check to see if it is still cheaper to book Olympic flights

with an on-line agency (such as Travelocity, Expedia, Opodo, TerminalA and others), rather than via its own website, and for a sample booking I could save £80 by using Travelocity. When I made my own booking for my last trip to Symi in April, Opodo was cheapest. I recommend checking several on-line booking services as prices do differ. You may also find that they can put together flights out with one airline and back with another, if the times suit you better. The price discrepancy seems to be that the airline’s website isn’t capable of finding and adding together discounted fares for the two legs of the journey, it finds one cheap fare and then adds on the normal fare for the Athens-Rhodes section., even though there is a much cheaper fare available for this bit separately, and the travel agencies can add these together to produce one ticket for both legs..

Olympic fares to Athens include 20kg hold baggage allowance plus one piece of hand baggage (more of both if you fly Business class) and a hot meal and drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) on board. They use Heathrow Terminal 4 (from November 2009).

EasyJet fly from Gatwick to Athens twice a day all year round, and also from Gatwick to Rhodes direct from the end of March to the end of October, on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the quieter periods and also on Thursdays and Sundays in high season.

Service from Manchester to Athens restarted on 10 February, the timetable varies through the year, sometimes with 3 flights a week (either Wednesday/Friday/Sunday or Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday) , sometimes with two (Wednesday and Sunday).

New for 2010 there is a non-stop Liverpool to Rhodes service on Wednesdays and Saturdays up to the end of October.

As EasyJet do not through-check baggage even to other EasyJet flights, you will always need to collect your baggage and re-check it to some other airline in Athens.

You will need to allow sufficient time in Athens to do this and to allow for any flight delays. Obviously this is not a problem on the direct flights to Rhodes.

EasyJet basic fares assume you are travelling with hand luggage only, and although they have a relaxed attitude to the weight of the hand luggage, watch out for the size, they do use size gauges. You can add a hold baggage allowance to your booking, currently this is £8 each way for 20kg. When you book on the airline’s website you will find they offer to sell you travel insurance.  I really don’t recommend having no insurance at all, but you may be able to find a better deal elsewhere. Food and drink is available on board, but you will have to pay for this at the time. Don’t assume if everyone is hungry there will still be sandwiches left when they reach you with the trolley, get something at the airport and just top up on board if you need to.

Aer Lingus fly from Dublin to Athens up to 30 September, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. On their flights within Europe they operate like a low-cost airline so food and drink are sold on board rather than included in the fare. As before you will need to collect your bags in Athens and re-check them onto your domestic flight to Rhodes, which you will need to buy separately. You will need to allow sufficient time in Athens to do this and to allow for any flight delays

VikingHellas has started Manchester-Athens flights, officially these are daily except Saturdays but their online booking system suggests Tuesdays and Wednesdays are better bets, timed to arrive in Athens to connect with evening flights to the islands. This would mean an overnight on Rhodes, but you would at least get a full night’s sleep Fares include a meal and 20kg baggage. As before you will need to collect your bags in Athens and re-check them onto your domestic flight to Rhodes, which you will need to buy separately. You will need to allow sufficient time in Athens to do this and to allow for any flight delays

There are other ways of getting from UK (and Irish) regional airports to Athens on scheduled flights, via Amsterdam with KLM, via Brussels with Brussels Airways, via Paris with Air France, via Rome with Alitalia, via Prague with Czech Airlines and so on. The online travel booking sites may throw these up, and they are worth looking at as occasionally they offer really good value fares, and may be quicker than changing at Heathrow or Gatwick if you need to travel at a time of year or on a day of the week that no direct flight is available.

Now we move on to direct flights to Rhodes. These are (apart from the EasyJet flights from Gatwick and Liverpool  I cover in the EasyJet section above) basically seats sold on charter flights. Most are operated by or for Thomson/TUI or Thomas Cook, and these can be booked on the two companies’ websites. Note that the two competing companies can and do sell seats on each others flights, which can be confusing and makes it appear that there are more flights than there really are, and operations can be subcontracted to other airlines entirely, this isn’t obvious when you book.

Monarch is another long-established operator, the charter division of the airline is associated with Cosmos Holidays, selling its seat-only bookings on line through sister company Avro.

Jet2 have now entered this market too, and are somewhere between a charter airline and a low-cost scheduled one as they too have their own package holiday operation.

There are also charters on which you can buy seats, but not directly from the airline.

Following the collapse of the XL operation there was a shortfall in flight availability for smaller package holiday companies without their own airline in house, and some of the ex-XL management set up an operation called Kiss Flights. They sell seats to the public and to other travel companies. Flights are operated by Viking Airways for Kiss.

Edit 18 August – Kiss Flights have closed down. It is unclear whether Viking will be operating the Rhodes flights on their own account, or whether they will be cancelled altogether. More news later.

Traditionally charter flights from the UK/Ireland to Rhodes have operated on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and this looks set to continue in 2010.

Here is a breakdown by departure airport:

Belfast International

Thomas Cook fly on Wednesdays up to the end of August (operated by SmartWings for Thomas Cook).

Birmingham

Thomas Cook fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October

Thomson fly on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1st May to 30th October.

Bournemouth

Thomson fly on Saturdays from 1^st May to 30^th October

Bristol

Thomson fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October

Viking (Kiss Flights) fly on Saturdays from 1^st May to 2nd October,

Cardiff

Thomson fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October

Thomas Cook fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 30^th September, returning early on Thursday mornings

Doncaster-Sheffield

Thomson fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October

East Midlands

Thomson fly on Saturdays from 1^st May to 30^th October

Thomas Cook fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October

Viking (Kiss Flights) fly on Wednesdays from 19^th May to 29^th September

Edinburgh

Viking (Kiss Flights) fly on Wednesdays up to 28 July, also on 6^th and 13^th October

Exeter

Thomson fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October

Glasgow

Thomson fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October

Thomas Cook fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 13^th October

Viking (Kiss Flights) fly on Wednesdays from 19^th May to 28^th July, then on 6^th and 13^th October. They also show flights on 6^th and 13^th April 2011.

Leeds-Bradford

Thomas Cook

Jet2 fly on Wednesdays from 24^th May to 3^rd October

Liverpool (see Easyjet)

London Gatwick

Thomas Cook fly on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1^st May to 30^th October, with extra flights on Wednesdays in high season.

Monarch fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October, an extra Wednesday flight operates in high season.

Thomson fly on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1^st May to 30^th October.

Between the 22^nd May and mid-late September up to 3 flights operate each Wednesday and Saturday.

Viking (Kiss Flights) fly on Wednesdays from 19^th May to 27^th October,22 September, last return 29 September

and on Saturdays from 29^th May to 30^th October 28 August, with flights also on 11 September and 23 October, returning 1 week later. This pattern will continue in 2011 starting 25th May.

(also EasyJet)

London Luton

Thomson fly on Saturdays from 1^st May to 30^th October

London Stansted

Thomson fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October, returning early on Thursday mornings.

This flight seems to be shared with Thomas Cook and you can also book it with them. The airport believes it will be operated by Thomson.

Manchester

Thomson fly on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 1^st May to 30^th October.

A second flight operates on both days from 22^nd May to 30 October

Thomas Cook fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October

Viking (Kiss Flights) fly on Wednesdays from 12^th May to 27^th October,

and on Saturdays from 10^th July to 28^th August. Similar flights will go in 2011, starting on 20^th April

Jet2 fly on Wednesdays from 24^th May to 3^rd October

Monarch fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October

Newcastle

Thomson fly on Wednesdays from 5^th May to 27^th October

Jet2 fly on Wednesdays from 17^th May to 3^rd October

Viking (Kiss Flights) fly on Wednesdays from 4^h August to 1st September,

and also on 20^th October,returning 1 week later.

One disadvantage that the charter type operations have is that if anything goes wrong on your flight or on the one before it may be a very long time indeed before you complete your journey. Most of the time things work well, but when they’re not well, they’re really bad. Planes are scheduled to be used 24 hours a day so a couple of hours delay at one point in the week can snowball as flights lose their takeoff slots and eventually crews reach their legal maximum on-duty time and no replacement crew is available. This is before the consequences of breakdowns at airports with no maintenance facilities are taken into account. On the 1^st of November last year I saw what should have been Viking’s last charter departure of the season from Rhodes back to Gatwick – it should have left at 10:30pm on the 31^st, but had been put back to 5pm on the 1^st..

As the plane was actually at Rhodes Airport when I arrived there mid-morning, the cause must have been a breakdown or crew out of hours. EU regulations require that passengers be given on-the-spot assistance with meals, phone calls home, hotel accommodation etc depending on the nature and length of the delay, but on charters you often find that the tour operators reps have dealt with matters for their clients, leaving the seat-only passengers to find someone at the airport who will accept responsibility for helping them.

The days of food and non-alcoholic drinks being included in the fares of the flights that go direct to Rhodes from the UK are long gone. If you are travelling independently you can prebook (at varying prices) hot meals with Thomas Cook, Thomson, Jet2 and Monarch, all of which will also sell drinks on board.

Viking (and EasyJet) sell drinks and snacks on board. It now appears possible to prebook  and prepay meals on Viking by visiting their website after you have booked the flight itself through Kiss.

Baggage allowances –

Jet2 – 10kg handbaggage (included) plus optionally 22 kg hold baggage (which is charged extra for at time of booking)

Thomas Cook – 5 kg handbaggage (included) plus optionally 20kg hold baggage (which is charged extra for at time of booking)

Thomson 5 kg handbaggage (included) plus optionally 20kg hold baggage (which is charged extra for at time of booking)

Monarch 5 kg handbaggage is included in the fare. At the time of booking you can increase the total baggage allowance to 20kg (INCLUDING the 5kg hand baggage) for a fee.

Viking/Kiss Flights 15 kg hold baggage and 5 kg hand baggage is included in the fare. Extra hold baggage allowance can be purchased at the time of booking.