Aegean Airlines A3 651/A3 650
Excellent Service on Europe’s Best Regional Airline
Although they were only short flights Rome-Athens and Athens-Rome, they were enough to know I flew with a great little airline. Well, little in the sense of the number of aircraft and destinations they fly to. They can’t be compared to Turkish Airlines, their closest neighbour and Star Alliance partner, but they do punch above their weight when it comes to quality and service. That’s why they’ve been voted the Best Regional Airline in Europe by Skytrax for many years.
Greek hospitality is well known and I couldn’t wait to try out Aegean since also I had gained Star Alliance Gold through them a year or so earlier. So when the chance came I decided to book through their website and grabbed two tickets, one for myself and one for a friend who had come with me to Rome. Unfortunately a day or so before our flight to Athens one of his legs which was injured years ago had swollen up and couldn’t move freely so I had to cancel his flight and cut my stay in Greece from 5 days to 3. A true disappointment in two ways. As we were looking forward to exploring as much as we could in those five days with our friend Peter who was already in Greece and staying in Athens.
Anyhow, all smooth when it came to the flight from Rome Fiumicino. Check-in was in Terminal 1 and boarding at Gate B5. I only had a carry-on for the few days and storing in the overhead bin was quick and easy. I was sitting at the front of the aircraft in 5C, an aisle seat. The seat was comfortable for the length of flight. The plane was around 85 percent full. Interesting on the day the pilot was Italian. Saw another pilot at the back of the plane hitching a ride to Athens he was also Italian. Can only assume Aegean have an international crew when it comes to pilots. Their FAs were Greek and some stunning ladies on both flights. Not to say they don’t have good looking males either.
After leveling off the service started. Got free drinks but didn’t ask for any snacks. The flight takes approximately an 1 hour and 55 minutes. Departing Rome FCO at 10:30 and arriving Athens ATH at 13:25. The flight basically was on time departing a few minutes late but arriving on schedule.
The return flight A3 650 departs Athens at 08:30 and takes approximately 2 hours and 5 minutes arriving in Rome at 09:35. A reasonably early flight so I had to get going to catch the bus at Ilisia (Vasilissis Sofias) to the airport. Had to forego breakfast at the hotel so I went to the Aegean Lounge open to Star Alliance Gold and Business flyers. Very welcoming and a good variety of food and drink. I didn’t check-in at the airport instead did everything online and used the Aegean app to show security the boarding pass. All very smooth.
On the this return flight had seat 6C. No different than in the previous leg. Never been to Athens Airport, or should I say Eleftherios Venizelos so was hoping to board using one of their aerobridges but where we were they gathered us onto a bus to board the Airbus A320-200 from the tarmac. A little disappointed but this wasn’t the Airline’s call. Again this second flight was as good as the first, perhaps better.
Aegean Airlines is an airline I highly recommend if flying to and from Greece and around Europe using Athens and Thessaloniki as your base. This is also an airline I would love to see expand one day perhaps with flights to North America and one to Singapore where they could hook up with Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand their Star Alliance partners and perhaps QANTAS to funnel Greeks from Australia and New Zealand wanting to fly with their flag carrier to their homeland or land of their relatives. We can only hope this is in the company’s plans for the future.
For more information on Aegean Airlines and booking flights go the Aegean Airlines website.
Note: Since this review was written the lettering and numbering of the gates at Rome Fiumicino Airport have changed. Gate B5 is now under the letter A in Terminal 1.
