Originally Posted by
timesnaps
Hi, going to be travelling to/from Athens with a toddler. Just curious how efficient the place is. If its like Hong Kong, then I have no worries getting the 08.45 flight to Spain, but I think it wont be. And we not interested in getting up at 05:30 (obviously depends how far from the airport we are).
So can anyone who travels through there frequently chime in on the following please:
- getting from Central to the airport in the early morning
- online checking on Aegean or Vueling (hand luggage only)
- security queues
- immigration? (dont think so, this being Shengen to Shengen)
- layout of terminal, bus to gates?
thanks
As I remember a cab needs at least 30 minutes from downtown Athens to the airport. Locals told me during rush hour this can go up to 45 minutes in worst cases 60 minutes or more. The airport is quite far outside of the city. Security queues were not crazy but probably depend on the day of the week and the time of the day. So queues on a Monday morning are probably longer than Wednesday afternoon. Also it depends if its holiday season or not. There will be no passport control from Greece to Spain. Overall my feeling was that the airport was as efficient or not-efficient as any other large European airport which are all compared to Hong Kong probably all a bit chaotic due to limited space. So if you plan to arrive around 7:30 you should be fine if you are already checked in and go directly through security and to the gate. You should even have some buffer.