koreanair720

Thanks for posting. Guess I'll hold off on booking for now...

WilcoRoger

and in most places those gates have been closed for many weeks now.

Read it more carefully - two Canadian provinces and 22 US states are on the list.

On the western shores of the Pacific

buckeye91

Did you really have to post that? This thread has been going well with limited sarcasm.

GUWonder

The quoted WilcoRoger post is factually accurate.

buckeye91

Thanks, General.

Romanianflyer

The list of countries has now been officially published:

https://www.ekathimerini.com/253190/...-as-of-june-15

In the first round, only citizens of the following countries will be welcomed as of June 15:

Albania, Australia, Austria, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Estonia, Japan, Israel, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Finland.For all other countries, Greece’s current travel restrictions will continue to apply, however the list will be updated and expanded on July 1.

Carpacchio

What is not clear to me: is it citizens (i.e. you must have nationality of those countries), residents (you need to live there) or just the country the flight comes from ?

So for instance, a British national (no) living in France (no) and flying from Frankfurt (ok).
Or a Swiss national (ok) living in France (no) and flying from Geneva (ok).
Or a German national (ok) living in Switzerland (ok) and flying from Italy (no).

WilcoRoger

Not sure how reliable is the quoted article, but it does state “Furthermore, nationals from excluded countries flying from approved countries will also be allowed in the country.“

Romanianflyer

I would assume they would ask for proof of German residence in this case. As I already wrote before, as a foreign national living in Romania I'm the same health risk as someone with the Romanian nationality. Therefore, I would qualify to gain entry but I will definitely bring proof of residence along in case I get questioned.

This is a more interesting case. I assume if there are no records in any system and if you keep the fact to yourself that you live in France (or even might have visited it) you would for sure be able to enter Greece.

That's a sure no as Italy is still blacklisted and those flying from Italy (and thus having passed through Italian territory) will be quarantined on arrival for 14 days in Greece. They can see of course your itinerary. But now we are fully in loophole territory, what about a French citizen flying first to Bulgaria on one ticket (Bulgaria will reopen for most nationalities as well) and then on a second ticket to Greece? I assume again everyone will get questioned at immigration and you might again be asked to p proof how long you have been on Bulgarian territory. Chances are that you cannot proof residency or a prelonged stay in that country that you will just be considered as French and put in quarantine for 14 days. It definitely is risky.

I wonder however how connecting flights/those staying airside are counted. I mean, Australians and Kiwis will be accepted into Greece, but how on earth would they reach the place if not by transit through Dubai or Doha or so? They would have to travel on Air China through Beijing as the only option I can think of at the moment which normally operates directly from Athens into a 'green' Asian country?

Romanianflyer

Kathimerini is highly reliable as one of the biggest newspapers of Greece. It's English pages are added to the international version of the NY Times on sale in Greece/Cyprus.

Carpacchio

I don't see this quote in the article - but the following one (maybe it got updated):

Furthermore, current exclusions relate to where the flight originates from and not to the traveller's nationality.

So that makes everything a bit pointless: I can travel from France to Switzerland and fly from there and it's all ok ? Or would indeed residence come into play somewhere, as @Romanianflyer suspected?

Romanianflyer

A lot of open questions indeed. Loopholes are not uncommon, look at the current Ireland loophole for UK travels for example, but without a clear answer from the authorities there might always be a certain risk involved if one would travel from an excluded country to a third country (which is cleared by the Greeks) and continue from there.

But somehow I cannot imagine that simply flying Stockholm-Frankfurt-Athens on Lufthansa would mean you'd be OK... if doing it on two separate tickets, maybe, but that is probably not something which a lot of ordinary holidaymakers would even consider doing/come up with. Don't forget that by far the great majority of Greek visitors come on a charter plane having booked a holiday package. Us Flyertalkers who sometimes travel on purpose on weird routings will always be the odd ones out in this, so the Greek government might think that the extra risks are small.

But again, just a theory! Even though I know that coming from Romania with plenty of direct flights available I will be fine, I will try to check a bit more with some Greek friends if they might hear more on the exact rules for those who still find themselves in limbo.

EuroFlash

I can see that EasyJet for instance has already zero'd out flights from London to Rhodes and from Amsterdam to Rhodes (haven't check other countries that are on the list), but seems that airlines are cancelling flights from the countries that are not on the list. in the period until 1st of July. Means that it's definitely a flight origin ban rather than a nationality ban.

Romanianflyer

In a reliable Dutch newspaper, it says that there WILL be a nationality check somehow (according to a Ministry of Tourism spox) and that Dutch citizens cannot outsmart the new rules by simply going to Germany and board a plane there to Greece.

I'm currently on the line myself with the Ministry of Tourism to try to speak to a spokesperson (I work in journalism myself) as I am really highly curious now how Greece intents to check incoming passengers and which rules then apply for transit passengers.

tiger302

Why is every one so confused and speculative about the entry requirements for Greece, when it is clearly posted by the Greek authorities @ IATA, see:

https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/int...1580226297.htm
and
https://www.iata.org/contentassets/1...v-measures.pdf

Since May 15th most European nationals are allowed to enter Greece. It is so confusing by Greek politicians stating that they will "open the border" on June 15th, when infact they have done so a month earlier. The only real question is will the quarantine measurements be extended past May?

@ Romanianflyer:
Dutch citizens can enter Greece since May 15th, see here for a quote from the source above:

Published 15.05.2020
1. Passengers are not allowed to enter Greece.
- This does not apply to:
- nationals and family members of nationals of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland (Rep.), Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland;