Why is it always to the remote stand?
 

Am I just unlucky? I've just checked my Aegean flight history - a total of 9 flights into ATH (from PRG, VIE, TXL, LCA, LUX, RHO) and I've never arrived at a terminal gate.

I really like Aegean, but always being bussed to the terminal really takes the shine off it!

Is there any reason why all flights into Athens seem to end up at a remote stand?

On the contrary the flights I have taken almost every time connect to a bridge gate.

A mixed bag - LHR flights often get a jet bridge. Otherwise a bus stand is the norm for me, even for a packed A321 to CAI (which was my sole disappointing A3 from start to finish).

I haven't kept track but I reckon around 3/4 of my A3 flights arrive or depart from a remote stand (even not including those on turboprops which must anyway) - but definitely fewer than that for other carriers. I'm always saying that they need more jet bridges - i.e.to get the remote pier fully open and properly used and possibly to build one to the north of the main terminal too. But... actually, the busing of pax. at ATH is very efficient on the whole! They seem to leave very quickly from the aircraft, not suffer from "traffic jams" and never have to queue to drop off at the terminal and they arrive at exactly the right place - airside, near the departure gates for connections and about two minutes from the baggage belts if not. There's nothing worse than having to take a bus and then STILL needing to walk for 10 minutes! Try being bused at FRA, LHR or IST if you want to know how bad it can get. I reckon the buses from ATH remote stands are probably quicker than walking from the remote pier would be anyway.

A lot depends on the time of day too - the jet bridges are busy early in the morning with night-stopping visitors (LH, AF, AZ, BA etc.), quiet mid morning and then busy again in the afternoon. It also depends more on the next destination of your inbound aircraft than anything else, I believe. If your aircraft is arriving from Schengen and the next departure is ex-Schengen (or vice-versa) then really a remote stand is the only practical option. With the pattern of recent expansion of A3, this is becoming more common.

I've never minded being bussed in ATH (I guess my frequency must have been around 50:50). As a matter of fact, now that the busses leave you airside, a connection is much, much easier and faster. Also, walking from the A3 lounge to B2 takes longer than B19, even if you have to go downstairs (furthest bus gate from the lounge). Really, I don't see any major disadvantage at all!

You usually get a terminal gate when you go to a 'cool/trendy' desination, so ZRH, LHR, GVA, CDG, MXP, etc!

Because TXL, VIE and PRG are not trendy ? !

I was quite impressed by the bussing around by A3 at ATH, JTR and HER. There are multiples buses, ready when the plane arrives, and customers are not crammed into them. But then my home airport is FRA so the bar is set very low :D

That's absolute fiction! :rolleyes:

HER always seems to have the J-only bus for arrivals too.
I can't remember if they always did that at ATH though.

They usually do it in CHQ too. I've never seen it done at ATH when I've been in C - even with 15+ pax from LHR, but on arrival from OTP last week they did - despite there only being one person in C.

I agree. Wishful thinking maybe. My experience on LHR is approx. 50/50 bus/bridge for both arrivals and departures. If A3 were making decisions based on "premiumness" of the route then surely that one would always use from a jet bridge.

I had the 'J-bus' both times I flew into ATH in Business Class. I can cope with that!

It's being crammed onto a bus and waiting for more people to push in that really gets on my nerves. I do, however, agree with the comments above that ATH seems to do the bus transfer rather well. It's just that, personally, I'd rather they didn't have to do it!

Maybe its flight times becuase I have taken A3 to London at least 10 times and every single time it was a jet bridge both on departure from ATH and arrival into ATH!
Anyway even if it is bus it's better then flying FR out of ATH in which case you walk like 15 minutes to the sattelite terminal? They really need a train there!

The LHR redeye arrival always seems to get a bus IME.

Otherwise, only ever had a bus on an SKG arrival. But then I haven't done many international A3 flights apart from LHR

Out of interest, is the gate information for ATH available publicly online? I know some airports publish gates on their websites but ATH doesn't seem to. Maybe it's available in one of the flight trackers but I've never seen it.