SKYSERV handling company, which serve most of Greece’s airports, have signed a new discount contract addendum with AOPA Hellas for further discounts effective of Dec. 1st 2019.
One of the issues with SKYSERV used to be that they are serving exclusively some smaller provincial airports but had higher prices than their rival GOLDAIR who are not based in some smaller airports and make SKYSERV an obligatory choice.
The change is in a lower basic handling price for aircraft with MTOW up to 1.500 Kg and even lower handling at two selected non FRAPORT airports of entry in Greece from the North, Ioannina LGIO and Nea Aghialos LGBL.
All details can be found in www.aopa.gr/Info para. 12b which also includes a comparative table with sample handling costs per visit.
These are costs for valid AOPA (any AOPA) Membership Card holders.
The usual handling cost without discount in Greece is roughly 300 Euro + additional charges having to do with many variables like passengers, weekend/night or not, IFR slots etc. etc.
The three Handlers in Greece are GOLDAIR, SWISSPORT, SKYSERV. Any other brand you face is agent on commission with one of them.
Don’t search their websites directly for contacts, the contact process is described in the above AOPA page I provide.
All in all, the total handling cost change by SKYSERV is not a huge number but its a more “fair” stance on GA compared to what it was up to now, especially for smaller provincial airports. There you only walk up to the building and Handler has the only obligation to marshal aircraft and escort people at apron.
At these airports where a visit would cost some 80 Euro for nothing, now is ~25 Euro (same as GOLDAIR) and 12,5 Euro at LGIO and LGBL with SKYSERV.
These are only the costs of handling.
LGBL needs PPR (being a mixed CIV/MIL airport) so de facto you get another ~40 Euro for the PPR and if coming from “abroad” (regardless of EU/Schengen) the Customs presence is also charged some ~30 Euro.
LGIO does not impose PPR, but coming from “abroad” needs customs presence.
LGIO by having also fuel is the cheapest option for Entering/Exiting Greece.
Operation hours are not ideal but doable with proper planning.
Haven’t read the rest of the thread….
I love Paros (especially the side facing Naxos) but handling and parking have become absurdly expensive. I don’t think I’ll take the plane there any more. Naxos was reasonable, but that might have changed the way Paros did for the worse…
Syros is reasonable for handling and has AVGAS. It’s also a ferry hub for the rest of the Cyclades.
Milos is reasonably priced and well worth a visit.
As a port of entry, it’s a good idea to use Ioannina (LGIO), reasonably priced handling and AVGAS.
With a reasonably long range plane you can do all of Greece, do a tour of a number of the islands, etc, entirely out of LGIO. And if you get a bit stuck you can refuel at LGST, which is a great place to hang out anyway. These two are at the opposite ends of Greece. Both have customs and avgas. And LGST is doable direct from anywhere in Croatia.
A proper cowboy could do LGIO from the UK; I have a plan to do that (LGKR alternate) in the TB20. It would need a lot of tailwind 
One cowboy did EGKB-LGKR many years ago, landing with vapour in the tanks.
This year we visited Naxos Sifnos and Syros. Sifnos was wonderful.
In summer, arriving on vapour in LGKR is not wise because they have A LOT of commercial traffic and long(ish) holds shall be expected.
Same goes for LGIO if IMC is forecast.
LGIO is in a basin in between mountains and a lake next to it.
Until ~10am fog is often present in no wind humid periods.
A diversion to LGKR due to LGIO IMC will need fuel to outclimb the mountain to the west and approach LGKR with redundancy for potential holds due to traffic.
Declaring a minimum fuel emergency will get a pilot in quickly in but later on the ground there may be “explanations” needed to CAA regarding forecast LGIO weather and planned fuel reserves. Off course ground work comes second in priority and that should never deter a pilot from doing what is safe for the current situation at any moment.
EGKA to LGST is 1500 NM roughly and you´d want a suitable alternate (LGIR is 50 NM away) but I suppose an Ovation should be just about able to do it … However, 8-30 hours with 150 kt (45% power) would be pushing people´s personal endurance. Mind, one which has the Monroy option could do it with normal cruise, that is with 180 kt and therefore would be there in about 7 hours.
EGKA to LGST is barely possible with a TBM
One could definitely to “UK to Greece” and EGMD-LGKR/LGIO is about 1150nm.
One cannot do a flight over about 1hr with an absolute certainly of not needing to pee, so a provision has to be made for that anyway
Peter wrote:
EGKA to LGST is barely possible with a TBM
Well, the book range of the Ovation at long range cruise (45%) and standard 89 USG usable is about 1550 NM. With Monroys (125 USG) you´d be looking at a range of around 2100 NM. Book figures, excludes a 45 min reserve.
45%, 153 kt TAS, 8.3 GPH will give a flight time from top of climb at 10´000 ft of 10.5 hours (Standard) or 14.5 hours (Monroy). So with one hour fuel remaining you could realistically see a range of 1483 NM (89 USG) or 2065 NM (125 USG), if you calculate with TOC and book fuel flow. The above figures from the range graph are not too far off then.
With 65% and 175 kt TAS, 12 GPH, you´d still get 7 hours or 10 hours endurance respectively so you´d see a 1 hour reserve range of around 1200 NM (standard) or 1575 NM with Monroys.
But frankly, with this kind of fuel capacity, you probably would simply land in a place with cheap fuel first and then go to Greece and visit most of the islands that don´t have any.
Indeed; I know a pilot (no longer flying) who did Plymouth to Corfu nonstop in one of those 2000nm+ Mooneys.
Well, that is 1100 NM plus whatever alternate you choose. So 1200 NM range needed practically speaking. There are quite a few SEP´s who should be able to do that.
A DA42 would do the trick too I would think, no? Especially the new version with the larger engines. But we’ve been talking mostly SEP here. 
