Athens International Airport has been described as a 'living hell' by a travel writer, with Ryanair passengers missing flights amid confusing departure boards, massive queues, and lengthy passport control delays in sweltering 30C heat.
Passenger Frustration Boils Over
"You can't do this. It's ridiculous!" bellowed a red-faced man, perspiration clinging to his brow in the Greek heat. It wasn't just the 30C temperature causing his temper to flare. This unfortunate traveller had been dealt a double blow of airport logistics that would drive MC Escher to distraction and a Ryanair system that appears purpose-built to reduce you to tears.
Athens International Airport has been handling arrivals and departures since 2001, when it launched as part of a pre-2004 Summer Olympics development scheme. It is a reasonably typical large European airport in many respects. In fact, walking into the main check-in hall, the presence of ouzo in the gift shop was the only clear sign I wasn't in Berlin or Rome, but rather in the Greek capital.
Out here, everything is relatively normal and peaceful.
Departure Screens Cause Confusion
But once you pass the checked-baggage zone, the airport's major, tearjerking, enraging shortcomings become apparent. For some baffling reason, the departure screens at Athens International display flights that left the airport an hour earlier, and those scheduled to depart within an hour, but no later.
That means travellers must wait until 60 minutes before their flight leaves to discover where it will depart from. This is a major issue, as the check-in hall splits off into three separate gate zones: A, B and C. Tap your ticket and head through security towards the wrong terminal, and you'll find yourself miles from the correct gate, forced to go through security all over again. The trek back stretches well over a kilometre — not a distance you'd relish when lugging bags and frantically racing for a flight.
Long Queues and Missed Flights
Not only are the distances between the check-in area considerable and entirely on foot, but the queues greeting passengers at the other end are nothing short of enormous. First comes bag drop. At Terminal C, a snaking queue of several hundred people was waiting for me. I grew increasingly flustered standing in it, wondering whether the two hours I'd allowed myself to board the Ryanair flight to London Luton would turn out to be nowhere near enough.
The queue would inch forward, then grind to a sudden standstill, as passengers — unable to find a single airport worker to point them in the right direction amid a complete lack of departure board information — were ushered to the front to avoid missing their flights. Hundreds were waved through in this fashion. Bag drop done, I'm sure plenty breathed a sigh of relief and treated themselves to a pre-flight Mythos or a sandwich, blissfully unaware of what was lurking beyond the departure hall.
A passport queue every bit as lengthy as the security scrum spelled disaster for those lulled into thinking everything was running smoothly. I made it through with just five minutes to spare before Ryanair's boarding cut-off. Others weren't so fortunate.
A group of roughly 20 passengers pleaded desperately with two members of staff as those of us who had arrived on time were led out onto the tarmac to wait for half an hour while our delayed flight was cleaned. Several appeared close to tears as they were informed that boarding was simply not possible, despite the aircraft sitting just metres away. The flight faced further delays while their luggage was removed from the hold, which subsequently caused the pilots to miss their allocated slots.
Ryanair's Response
I put it to Ryanair what had become of those passengers and whether they would receive a refund, to which the budget carrier gave a straightforward, if rather unsympathetic, response. "Due to delays caused by border control at Athens Airport on 14 June, a number of passengers booked to travel from Athens to London Luton were not in the boarding gate area when boarding for their flight closed and missed their flight from to Athens to London Luton. All passengers that were at the boarding gate when this flight from Athens to London Luton boarded, travelled without incident," the airline's spokesperson said.
Greek Airport Chaos Worsens
Greek airports have attracted considerable negative attention in recent months following the rollout of the EU-wide Entry/Exit System, which requires certain passengers to have their fingerprints scanned and personal details recorded. As the summer rush approaches, queues have already started to mount at major airports, including Athens. One traveller reported spending nearly two and a half hours clearing passport control in Athens, with passengers at island airports such as Zante experiencing similarly lengthy waits. Athens, the nation's busiest airport, anticipates up to 15,000 passengers daily throughout the summer months.
In response to the growing queues, and keen not to put off one of the country's most significant tourist markets, Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni moved to exempt Brits from the delays. She stated that the government had no desire for visitors to be "burdened" by red tape, and pledged that Brits would be "fast-tracked" through the system, describing the entry and exit process as taking "a minute or so." However, by the end of May, the exemption had been scrapped. The Greek Foreign Ministry stated that it had no information that "specific nationalities are temporarily exempt from the relevant procedure." Athens Airport was approached for comment.
