The Greek charm offensive: In the Sky Express A320neo from Athens to Rhodes

Airbus A320neo (Photo: Steffen Lorenz).
Airbus A320neo (Photo: Steffen Lorenz).

The Greek charm offensive: In the Sky Express A320neo from Athens to Rhodes

Airbus A320neo (Photo: Steffen Lorenz).
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When the news got around in 2006 that the first Russian low-cost airline “SkyExpress” would soon start operating between Moscow and Sochi, a completely different airline of the same name was already one step ahead more than a year earlier.

Founded on the sunny island of Crete as “The Airline of Crete”, Sky Express Greece has already started its services. In the past 15 years, one thing has remained true to one thing: connecting a large number of Greek islands with propeller planes. In between there were smaller excursions. In 2006, for example, a single Boeing 747-200 freighter was used for a short time and in 2009, two MD-83s, which had previously been delivered to Austrian Airlines, entered the charter business at short notice, in order to end this excursion soon.

Subsequently, the focus was again on the ATR42 / 72 operation within Greece for several years and on the weekends the propeller fleet even ended up in Austria, including on charter flights from Skiathos. In the midst of the corona pandemic in autumn 2020, Airbus then surprised with an announcement that a completely new Airbus operator could be won with Sky Express. Just a few weeks later, the first brand-new A320neo took off for Greece. While airlines from all over the world put their orders on the back burner or canceled them entirely, the Greek private airline chose the opposite route, based on the motto “attack is the best defense”.

With a completely revised, fresh paint job and corporate identity and a new tariff system, you are now heading for 39 national and international destinations. The fuel-saving Neo's are now regular guests at the German airports in Hamburg and Dortmund. On the new scheduled flights from Athens to London, Paris, Rome or Brussels, you do not shy away from direct and sometimes fiercely contested competition with the established competitors and head for the large and international airports such as Heathrow or Charles de Gaulle.

But what exactly does the “new player” offer besides a new aircraft? After all, Greece has with “Aegean” an airline that has won several awards over the past decade as “Europe's best regional airline”. Since my Scoot Dreamliner flight should already take me to Athens, I am already looking for ways to continue my journey while preparing for my trip. With a few exceptions, the new A320neos are used every day on the routes from Athens to Heraklion, Thessaloniki, Larnaca and Rhodes. During the summer season, the trendy islands of Santorini and Mykonos are also served by the significantly larger jets.

Arrival

In contrast to the last trip reports, I would like to talk a little less about the route "ATH-RHO" flown in the test than about Sky Express itself. During this year's summer season, the A320neo fleet was largely stationed overnight at Athens Airport and especially on the weekends in Crete.

From Heraklion, the airports Hamburg and Dortmund in the "DACH" area were served; service to these two destinations is not planned (due to seasonal factors) in the current winter flight schedule 21/22. From Athens there are currently international flights to London-LHR, Paris-CDG, Rome-FCO, Brussels-BRU and Larnaca, and the A320neo will soon be stationed at Thessaloniki Airport.

However, my departure took place from Eleftherios Venizelos Airport in Athens, which is regularly served by 11 departure airports in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in this winter flight plan. I decided on the Scoot 787 variant from Berlin, a detailed trip report can be found under this link.

The check-in / lounge in Athens

For the domestic route from Athens to Rhodes, the web check-in on the homepage worked perfectly and quickly. Thanks to this, at least this time I was spared going to the counter. Sky Express does not currently have its own app, instead it has a modern and clearly structured homepage and a very easy-to-use web check-in. It should be noted that both the Fast Lane in Athens and the “Executive Lounge” can be added to ALL (!) Tariffs at a fair surcharge. The lounge operated by the Greek ground service provider “SkyServe” is located behind the security check at Athens Airport, next door to the lounges of the competitors.

With such a low entry-level price, my expectations were low and to be honest, I was expecting a kind of (who still remembers) “exclusive waiting area”, as was the case at Air Berlin at the time. The actual offer is slightly higher. There is a limited selection of bottled soft drinks (water, orange juice), a few sweet or salty snacks and a type of sandwich that was kept very simple. A little hidden (probably on purpose) there were also a few cans of cold Greek beer. There are also comfortable leather armchairs and sofas and free wifi. All in all, my very generous waiting time could be served here in a very pleasant setting and was worth every penny for me. However, if you expect pure luxury here, you should save your money, as mentioned, this is a very simple offer.

Boarding

Our aircraft had been given an outside position for the Saturday evening flight from Athens to the Greek island. In the evening a kind of “turnstile wave” starts, so that, almost in parallel, 8 SkyExpress flights were planned within 20 minutes. The flights to Corfu, Alexandroupolis, Mytilene, Heraklion or Rhodes were boarded next to each other. After waiting for 4 hours, I was looking forward to the onward flight and this “new” airline on my personal bucket list.

So while I was carefully following the check-in stand on the departure board in the Skyserve Lounge, I noticed that my plane was the last to start boarding, so I made my way leisurely towards the escalator to the basement. Boarding for my plane had already started a few minutes earlier and when it was my turn to show my boarding pass, vaccination certificate and ID document, the Ground Staff employee, who was obviously grinning behind her mask, answered in perfect German: “From Germany? We don't have that here often, I wish you a nice flight. "

Since the bus driver had stretched the ribbon to the next free bus for 4 fellow travelers in front of me, there was time for a short chat, in which it turned out that the elderly lady had a family from the Stuttgart region and also spent a few years there professionally. All in all, a very effective, relaxed and friendly boarding process with many buses and smaller groups (I had the impression of a maximum of 20 people per bus) and therefore very compliant in Covid-19 times.

The seat and the cabin

The Airbus used on the day of the test with the identification “SX-NIG” and the MSN9456 is the “oldest” of the 6 Neos that have been taken over so far. This A320 is, however, differently an eccentric, which is why an exact assessment of the standard Sky Express cabin is not possible. This was originally intended for the Mexican Interjet and has 174 seats in unspectacular and customary all-economy seating. The cabin originally intended for the Mexican low-cost airline and obviously already installed was taken over 1: 1.

This is primarily noticeable in the different light gray leather upholstery of the seats and the 12 less built-in seats in the cabin, which, due to the selected galley and lavatory configuration, cannot easily be changed to the regularly selected 186 seats. The built-in “mobile class divider” for spatial separation of the cabin with blue curtains, which was installed between rows 3 and 4, is somewhat unusual. This enables Sky Express to theoretically offer and sell a continental premium economy or business class concept even at short notice. The seat installed here had USB connections below the seats, which, however, were not activated on the flight.
The service on board (wifi / entertainment)

Immediately after the start there was a detailed service announcement in Greek and English, in which the free service on board was explained. At the same time, the cabin crew handed out a disinfectant wipe so that they could wipe the folding tables again independently, if desired. Immediately afterwards the service, which consisted of non-alcoholic cold and hot drinks, was served with a small Greek snack, a sweet delicacy from Crete.

The Airbus was estimated to be 2/3 booked that evening, in the front 3 rows only the middle seats remained free, which incidentally were already displayed as blocked during the booking process and also during the web check-in. On the rest of the plane I only noticed a very manageable number of vacant seats. With a manageable flight time, which was previously given as 45 minutes, experience has shown that this is a somewhat more stressful flight for the crew, also due to the free delivery of snacks and drinks. During the flight, the Italian captain reported, who proudly highlighted the environmental balance of the A320neo and presented "his beautiful aircraft that evening" in detail and announced that he would be arriving on the island only 5 minutes late at a still pleasant 22 degrees in the evening.

At the time of the test flight in mid-September, Sky Express was also running a competition in which a random winner on board could receive a voucher for local Greek specialties or flight vouchers of various amounts. This winner was also announced by the captain and led to spontaneous applause in the back rows in which the “winner” was sitting. Thanks to a crisp approach and direct clearance, we landed in the end after only 37 minutes and thus 2 minutes earlier than planned at the airport on the Greek island, which was astonishingly empty that evening, after a short but beautiful flight.

The price as well as the chosen tariff

Sky Express offers 3 different tariffs. "Joy" - corresponds to the current Economy "Light Tariff" and includes pure transport including hand luggage weighing a maximum of 8 kilos and, as a small benefit, an additional free "Personal Item". "Joy +" - corresponds to an Economy "Classic" tariff and includes a checked-in baggage over 15 kilos as well as some additional services in the area of ​​a possible rebooking or cancellation. The surcharge compared to the basic tariff for domestic flights is currently only 7 € (one-way). What is really interesting, however, is the third tariff called “EnJoy”.

This corresponds primarily to a very extensive Economy “Flex” ticket. The real highlight, however, is that for an almost ridiculous surcharge of € 24,95 compared to a booking at an entry-level price, some additional services are included, which are equivalent to a business class product and / or tariff in the European industry standard. In addition to 8 kilograms of hand luggage and a personal item, a checked-in baggage of 23kg is also included, as well as a free seat reservation (all rows of seats, all seats can be selected free of charge), use of Fast Lane Security or lounge access at Athens Airport.

The total package was on the day of booking at a price of € 66,94 for the EnJoy tariff including all additional services, the starting price in "Joy" would have cost me € 41,99 on the day of booking, in Joy + € 48,99. Absolutely no question how my choice was made.

The author's conclusion:

Of course, as always with a trip report, it is a snapshot. However, if I had to sum up my Sky Express experience in one word, it would be: OUTSTANDING! The mixture of a professional, extremely attentive and friendly crew, combined with a state-of-the-art product at an absolutely low entry price, is an asset to Southeastern Europe and the associated market. In contrast to the main rival on domestic Greek flights “Aegean”, Sky Express currently has the option of traveling comfortably and at a reasonable price to selected destinations in the fuel-saving and quiet A320neos even without frequent flyer status or a significantly more expensive Business Class ticket.

With the fresh corporate design on the homepage and jets, this “new” Sky Express doesn’t need to hide. Further intersections in the "DACH" region for this REAL Greek alternative would be desirable.

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Editor of this article:

Steffen Lorenz was a flight attendant at various airlines for several decades and has been part of the Aviation.Direct editorial team since October 2021 in the areas of product tests and trip reports.
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Steffen Lorenz was a flight attendant at various airlines for several decades and has been part of the Aviation.Direct editorial team since October 2021 in the areas of product tests and trip reports.
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Nobody likes paywalls
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Information should be free for everyone, but good journalism costs a lot of money.

If you enjoyed this article, you can check Aviation.Direct voluntary for a cup of coffee Coffee trail (for them it's free to use).

In doing so, you support the journalistic work of our independent specialist portal for aviation, travel and tourism with a focus on the DA-CH region voluntarily without a paywall requirement.

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