Review of Aegean Airlines flight Athens → Kerkyra Island in Economy

Intro

Hello again,

before you start, welcome to my second ever flight report. I'm still learning so don't be to hard on me ;).

In January this year I planed to spend a few weeks on Corfu Island. But due to runway renovation, my flights got canceld and I had to reshedule a litle bit.
Fortunately though the closure was split in two periodes with a window of roughly two weeks in the middle, which even allowed a day trip to Athens.  And I resheduled my trip including a day trip to Athens on which you will be joning me now. 

Normally flights between ATH and CFU are operated by the A320-Family, but due to the runway renovations the flight has to be operated by smaler aircrafts, meaning ATR-Aircrafts operated by Olympic for all Aegean flights. 

Arriving at ATH Airport by Metro or Train

I arrived from Athens by Proastiakós at the combined Metro and train station at ATH Airport. 

I headed up the escalator and find myself in the departure hall of the Station. To my left and not on the picture there are a few ticket machines which will sell you most tickets you need as a visitor.

The airport station is located in the middle of a high way and is conected to the Terminal area by a short bridge, that leads to the terminal drive way on the departure level.

ATH Airport

Once inside the Terminal I still have 2 hours to spend before departure and after one quick look on the departure board in notice that there isn't even a gate yet for my flight to Kerkyra / Corfu.

I stop by the check-in area to have my boarding pass printed and than head straight to security.

Thanks to my Aegean Miles+Bonus Gold Status I can use the security fast lane, but at least off season it's not really the most important feature as normal security is not very crowded.

9 minuts after I entered the terminal building I'm released into ATH's schengen duty free area. My gate is still not annoucend and I have about an hour before boarding start, so I decide to head to the lounges to kill some time.
 

LH Lounge at ATH

Eventhough this flight is operated by Olympic it's officially an Aegean flight so all star alliance benefits apply, which means that I can use the LH Lounge.

Since the renovation I actually prefere the Aegean Lounge next door, but today there is only one LH Group flight left, a Swiss A220 to Zurich, and the lounge is really empty. Even off Season this is quite rare.

The Lounge is devided into to small areas. If you enter and turn right, you'll find a more relaxed area with several armchairs and a small sofa. There is also a self service bar, with a selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. At the time of traveling the selection of alcoholic beverages is slightly better than at the Aegean Lounge including masticha and sparkling wine.

If you turn left after entering the lounge you will find yourself in the dining area. On that evening to hot options were provided, one beeing meatballs and the other one were orzo nudels with vegetables.

As you can see the lounge is rather small and so it's gets crowded quite easily, but to be fare, that also happens to the Aegean Lounge next door wich is about three to four times bigger, but of course there are far more Aegean and Olympic flights than LH Group flights.

At a quarter past five I make my way out of the lounge and downstairs to my gate B30. 

The Flight

As I arrive at the gate boarding had just started. With Aegean boarding is organized in groups. At that time no priority boarding is offered on the ATR72 flights. Instead group 1 consinsts of all passengers in row 1 to 10 and group 2 of those in row 11 to 20. To busses are used to insure the groups are seperated. My Seat that day was 18D, so I waited at the gate to board among the last passengers and don't have to wait in the bus so long.
 

Waiting for the second bus to arrive.
 

Impression of ATH apron.
 
After a few minutes the bus arrives at the turboprop farm. Since Olympic switched from Dash8 to ATR aircrafts most planes here are ATR, as SkyExpress, Aegeans main competitor is also using the ATR family.

My ride to CFU will be SX-OBQ. During my time on CFU I met SX-OBQ quite a few times. I already traveled onboard that plane 6 days ago when I flew to IOA becaus of the closed airport at CFU and I will also be transported by it on my way home from CFU to BER via ATH.

Finally on board: 

Unfortunately it's already dark outside and it's still raining so I only have this "artist impression of ATH terminal" as take-off footage.

On my way to ATH this morning, service was canceld due to the turbulences, but tonight the flight is much calmer. As it's standard nowadays with Aegean and Olympic in domestic economy, you get a small bottle of water and a snack. 

On approach to Corfu the sky even clears up a bit and I can take a quick look at Igoumenitsa, the brigth blob in the backround. 

A few minutes later, we fly over one of the ferries between Kerkyra and Igoumenitsa and than touch down just two minutes later. 

Eventhough CFU is a small walkable airport, we get bussed to the Terminal, which is a little bit annoying. On the plus side, once I'm inside the terminal the luggage is already rolling on the carousel.

I leave the baggeclaim area and I'm at my car in no time, as there is plenty of parking space near the terminal at this time of the year.

 Thanks for reading and until next time.