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Flights to Athens
5 Answers
Why are flights to Athens so damn expensive? I have a wedding to atend there on the 8th of september and looking for 3 days around that date and cheapest I can find is �178-and that's with easyjet!
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You're obviously not as old as me ;-)
25 years ago, any scheduled flight to Greece and back would have probably cost at least a month's take home pay. The price you quote today would leave most people change out of a week's take home pay, so (using the comparisons we oldies like to refer to), that's definitely cheap.
Looking at it another way, a return bus trip to my nearest large town costs about 16p per mile. If I take my car, the fuel costs are about 12p per mile. The train works out at 18p per mile. Easyjet are offering to get you to Athens and back for under 6p per mile. So I still think it's cheap!
Budget airlines use their aircraft, on the shorter European routes, for 3 return flights per day. Greece might not seem that much further than, say, Spain, but the extra distance means that they can only fit in 2 return flights per day. That makes a big difference to their budgets, so prices are bound to be higher.
Additionally, there's not much competition on routes to Athens. (Most holidaymakers head for the Greek islands, rather than the mainland). So there's no great incentive for airlines to keep prices down. The only airlines which serve Athens, from the UK, are BA (cheapest fare �202), Easyjet (cheapest fare �178) and Olympic. (I've not checked every possible fare but most are around �240 - �250. Some are over �1000):
http://www.aia.gr/flight_schedule/european_en. htm
Sorry!
Chris
25 years ago, any scheduled flight to Greece and back would have probably cost at least a month's take home pay. The price you quote today would leave most people change out of a week's take home pay, so (using the comparisons we oldies like to refer to), that's definitely cheap.
Looking at it another way, a return bus trip to my nearest large town costs about 16p per mile. If I take my car, the fuel costs are about 12p per mile. The train works out at 18p per mile. Easyjet are offering to get you to Athens and back for under 6p per mile. So I still think it's cheap!
Budget airlines use their aircraft, on the shorter European routes, for 3 return flights per day. Greece might not seem that much further than, say, Spain, but the extra distance means that they can only fit in 2 return flights per day. That makes a big difference to their budgets, so prices are bound to be higher.
Additionally, there's not much competition on routes to Athens. (Most holidaymakers head for the Greek islands, rather than the mainland). So there's no great incentive for airlines to keep prices down. The only airlines which serve Athens, from the UK, are BA (cheapest fare �202), Easyjet (cheapest fare �178) and Olympic. (I've not checked every possible fare but most are around �240 - �250. Some are over �1000):
http://www.aia.gr/flight_schedule/european_en. htm
Sorry!
Chris
You haven't put where you want to fly from, but http://www.skyscanner.net/cheap-flights.html?A ssociateID=adwchitad10 is a good website for cheap flights. I went to Athens last month (for the Champions League Cup Final) and got three flights for just over �1000, which wasn't bad considering some people were paying �1600 PER FLIGHT! I did go out via Prague and back via Dusseldorf though! Check out the non-direct flights on skyscanner if you really want to go cheaper. Won't get �30 each way flights though for the reasons pointed out by Buenchico.
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