Travelite

I have a question: I will be transiting from ISTANBUL to PALERMO flying on A3 Business class ( new A3 route for the summer) via ATH on Aegean Airlines. It looks like according Aegean Airlines website I should collect my baggages at ATH. I have transited several times in the past years going as usual Istanbul to Rome via ATH on Aegean and I never had to collect baggages in ATH .
Is that something new? Can anybody shed some light about Non Schengen to Schengen transit lately please? All feedbacks will be appreciated. Thanks all.

KLouis

Can you point to where you read this on A3's site? It is true that luggage between non-EU and EU countries (Schengen is irrelevant here) have to undergo customs inspection, but this is usually skipped in Athens and, theoretically at least, inspections always take place at the final destination (here PMO). When you arrive there, you'll have to exit through the non-EU exit. I am not aware that there is a new directive, namely to strictly follow the rules, but given that this is the the EU-wide law, you'll not get a different answer from asking Aegean than what is written in their site. Having said that, I hope that in practice nothing has changed, and, as is the case with Customs officers in Greece, you'll most probably see the GdF agents chatting and not checking.

Travelite

If you fly from an airport outside the Schengen Zone to a destination within the Schengen Zone*, after passing through passport and security control and claim your baggage, head to Gates B1-B31.

ajeleonard

Yes but note the asterisk next to it, referencing the not-well-written note about flying to airports without customs

If your destination airport doesn't have customs (many small island airports in Greece) then you need to collect your baggage in Athens and clear customs. If you are flying to an airport with customs then it will go straight through

djjaguar64

I had to voice my dislike for the ATH airport. No showers anywhere in the entire airport not even in the lounges. Usually we connect through CDG to ATH and take a shower in the lounge in CDG but this time due to A3's terminal in CDG, we could not take a shower as we landed from YYZ. Sad.

East_and_West

This is more of a lounge issue rather than an airport issue. No doubt that Aegean lounges in ATH are rather basic; definitely subpar to what one would expect of a *A carrier's flagship lounge. Yet airline lounges are there to cater primarily for the needs of pax of the host airline. Usage by partner airline pax is a secondary purpose. And bear in mind that A3 is a regional airline, so having access to showers in the lounge is not as essential to their pax as it would be to the pax of a truly international airline...

That aside, if there are paid/public showers at an airport, I would consider that to be a bonus, rather than something I would expect to find at the average airport in Europe. Personally I kind of find ATH cute and welcoming. From my (perhaps limited) experience it's among the top medium-sized airports in Europe (Although my personal favourite in that league worldwide is by far AKL ). I like ATH a bit better than ARN or HEL, not to mention WAW, or the horror of places like TXL and MXP... Especially after the recent refurbishment it has become more functional, and easier to navigate around. My only remark is that there are almost no public power outlet-/work-stations, so nowhere to place your laptop and work in proximity to the gates (apart from your laps ), unless your departure gate happens to be close to a lounge that you have access to. This is something that one would have expected from them to fix in the refurbishment.