Transfer in Athens

I just landed in Athens on a SWISS flight from Zürich. Being an intra-Schengen service, the flight from Zürich terminated on the B concourse. At Athens, airside transfers are only possible within the B concourse. However, with Cyprus not being in Schengen, the flight to Larnaca will be leaving from the A concourse. If you arrive in B and follow the signs for gates A and C, eventually you wind up landside with all the passengers ending their journey in the Greek capital.

From arrivals I head one floor up to departures. Initially, I queue for the wrong security checkpoint – not realising there are separate checkpoints for the A and B gates. Eventually, I manage to find the right place. The fast track security lane is rather convenient and quick.

The Aegean Airlines Non-Schengen Lounge

Once I’m airside, I follow the signs to the Business Class lounges, which take me straight through the middle of the rather substantial dutyfree shop.

The Aegean Airlines non-Schengen lounge is located on the third floor, and it’s rather nice. The lounge is spacious and nicely appointed. I grab myself a lounger by the window and wait there for my onward connection to Larnaca to show up on the display. That, and to keep far, far away from all the young hipster couples and their satanic spawn.

The lounge has a nice buffet area with an extensive selection of hot and cold local dishes. However, having just eaten on the plane, I just grab a sparkling water. The views from the lounge are excellent and much better than the Schengen lounge, which is smaller and faces landside.

Boarding

My flight is departing at 15h45 from gate A24. Boarding starts at 15h00. A24 is a bus gate, because apparently, our aircraft is parked on a remote stand. The first two busses are for passengers in groups 1 and 2, which is basically everyone seated in Business Class plus passengers with Star Gold status.

The Cabin & Seat

There are three rows of Business Class for a total of twelve seats. Occupancy is 12/12. I’m seated on 1A. The seat is rather nice and much better than the one I just flew to Athens in with SWISS. This seat has better padding. The headrest can be adjusted in height, and the pitch is very good. In addition, there is an electric socket at each seat and wifi is available throughout the flight.

The Service & Crew

While boarding is ongoing, the crew serve Business Class passengers a welcome drink of their choice. I ask for still water, which is served in a proper glass. Once the doors close, the crew hand out the menus. Our flight time to Larnaca is eighty minutes.

After take-off, and once we’ve settled into the cruise, the service resumes with the distribution of scented hot towels.

The Meal – Late Lunch

It’s a bit strange that while there are two options to choose from on the menu for the main course, both of them are with meat – either chicken or beef. You’d think that it would make more sense to have one meat and one non-meat option, which is what SWISS or Iberia do.

I request the chicken, mainly because I’m a sucker for mashed potato. The chicken is served in a thick, rich gravy that has something slightly sweet to it. It tastes rather nice. The salad is served with a small bottle of vinaigrette. There’s also a plate of cheese served with crackers, in addition to the warm bread roll that is served on the tray. The dessert is lovely. I notice the crew don’t ask passengers if they’d like a tea or coffee after the meal. But I guess that’s fair enough. With a flight time of only eighty minutes, they’re on a tight schedule.

Arrival in Larnaca

The rest of the flight is uneventful. Just as we approach the Cypriot coastline, we begin our descent. The landscape below us is strange. The island is completely devoid of trees or any other vegetation. Usually, approaches from the north come in right over the airport, then make a 270 degree left hand turn over the bay to line up for the approach from the east. However, today we’re given a shortcut. They bring us in low over the city of Larnaca so that we just need to make a right turn instead to line up for the approach. I’m assuming this was done for our flight to make up for some lost time, as we’re running about fifteen minutes late.

Eventually, we land and have a very short taxi to our stand at the single pier available at the airport. We pull onto our stand just ten minutes behind schedule. The outside temperature is 32 degrees.

Conclusion

This was a solid performance by Aegean and a pleasant journey from Athens to Larnaca. While the hardware is your traditional Eurobusiness configuration, this seat was rather nice and comfortable. The food service was quite impressive. Basically, it was similar to what SWISS served on the previous flight. The difference being that this was just a short flight of only 80 minutes.

At the end of this year, Aegean will receive two A 321 XLRs with which it will start flights to India. The aircraft will only have 138 seats and a dedicated Business Class cabin and seat. It will be interesting to see what the new product will be like and how the routes evolve for them.