This is not my trip. I am posting this on behalf of a colleague who is currently sitting out a quarantine and doesn’t want to draw attention to himself
Trip to Corfu and return – report
Made a two week business trip from the UK to Corfu in my aircraft. Stopped
in Mail Losinj LDLO on the way there to refuel. Extremely friendly and
helpful. Current regulations allow one a 12 hour “transit” through Croatia
without Covid tests, and in any event the officials said we could use the
bathrooms etc and still remain technically airside. Avgas was E1.90 a
litre, though they did charge me about E80 for the stop, which I think was
a mistake but I was in too much of a hurry to check. In and out in 45
minutes. On the return there was bad weather and Losinj tower closed at the
last minute, so we diverted to Pula LDPL. Similar excellent service, same
price for fuel, and the total landing and service charge was only E23, as
it was deemed a “technical stop”. In and out in under an hour. The weather
in Pula was atrocious, so a good reminder not to rely on having balmy skies
in the Adriatic.
Corfu LGKR is completely deserted. Only the very occasional private flight
and one commercial flight to Athens every day. Greece is very concerned
about Covid. Masks worn by all, in the street as well as inside and in some
cars even. Everyone could tell at sight that we were not Greek and they
almost shrank away from us. It is a place full of fear. We had to
quarantine for the first week, and then pass a PCR test. Luckily the
service from GPs there is excellent and a local one was happy to come to
the house we rented and do the swab and arrange same day turnaround.
Using my AOPA card handling at Corfu was only E40, and landing only E50
(sub 2 tonnes), but I was stung by over E300 for parking for two weeks inc
VAT. I was told that indeed, during a normal summer one would be very lucky
to get even a few days only of parking. There are only 4 spots allocated.
The space behind the terminal at the NE which used to be for aircraft
parking is now a carpark and the airport has built a whole new commercial
terminal. A few days after we arrived they Notammed no more Avgas, but
luckily we had enough to get back to Croatia. We used Skyserv who were
excellent – friendly, helpful etc. In fact I felt really bad about using my
AOPA discount.
€80 at LDLO is definitely mistake – technical stop should be around €30. The fees on Corfu don’t sound bad at all and even parking isn’t too much for two weeks – €20/per day is cheaper than Split LDSP in high season (€24/day for 2-ton aircraft).
May have been a closing time extension.
Sadly a different experience for me. Despite lots trying I could only get two days parking, with the intention that if no one else booked I could extend. What they didn’t say was that they were going to close half of the parking for maintenance so they threw me out after four days. I used Swissport. Clearly a mistake. My final bill came in at 680 euros even though I had written before to ask for an estimate and they said 200 euros. On the ground they could not change anything. Computer says nah. So I’ll be writing to them when I can. A real shame as tainted the experience, but of course sheet happens. Next time it’ll be straight to LGIO Easy peacy but odd opening hours. Hour taxi to the port and an hour and bit ferry. Nice people.
I was the one who flew there in April, and then again in late May. And yes, the extra charge at Mali Losinj was for keeping the airport open an extra 30 mins – fine.
Knowing that I would be going to Greece a few times I joined AOPA Hellas and got the membership card. With this my handling in Corfu with Skyserv was only E40 as I noted. Given the amount of time it takes for Skysev to help me – multiple emails about PPR and slots, interaction with Fraport, escort to and from plane, waiting for me to start up and taxi before they can leave the parking area etc, literally several hours – I felt guilty about how puny my payment to them was.
It is quite easy to join AOPA Hellas, so dont hesitate.
Any AOPA works, though. But from what I heard, I understand why you don’t want to join AOPA UK…
Agree on the amount of time any handling agent in Greece “spends” with a single operation. It’s nuts. And it shows that it is all wrong. All this PPR, slot coordination, emailing, waiting on the apron, etc. is totally unnecessary and could simply be abolished, which would make the 40€ a reasonable sum for the handling agent. But as it is, it is actually remarkable that these people are (usually) so patient and friendly with these pesky AOPA pilots.
One has to “understand Greece” 
Here is a bit of a caricature but you’ll get the idea:
In the West, if you are not needed, the company kicks you out, and if you are “useless” (like many are) you end up living off social security.
In Greece, every working person is likely to be supporting his extended family (mostly sitting at home and “baking cakes”) and supporting another 20 of their relatives. Every working person is propping up a whole load of non-earning or low-paid people, and this prevents these people from drawing social security. So a potential husband who earns a lot, say 50-100k, and can support you, your mum, her family, your grandma, her family, etc, is even more priceless than he would be here in the West (where he needs to do all that plus be a perfect father, like the one on the cover of your woman’s magazine, who spends “quality time” with the kids despite coming home half dead from a stressful corporate ladder climbing and ar*se licking job)
In terms of overall social costs/outcomes, one cannot really argue one system is worse or better than the other. The Greek way has a much greater family cohesion, and among much else results in far fewer old (and gaga) people dumped into care homes where they rot for their final 2.5 years. But the “Greek way” makes damn sure the system will never change, the govt knows any reform will explode their social security bill (which is a problem since everybody in Greece who can evade tax is doing that) and every working Greek makes sure he is busy doing “something” billable no matter how pointless.
So Brussels will for ever struggle to convert Greece into a N European country OTOH who would travel to Greece if it was like N Europe? I am sure most of us prefer the lovely friendly people who actually like us to go there, instead of saying (without actually saying it) “you won’t learn our language, so f-k off”
In the West, if a job involved passing 20 bits of paper and rubber stamping and filing them, sooner or later the employee will go looking for a more interesting job (watching the security cameras in the House of Commons, perhaps?). In Greece, people do that job for 40 years…
Peter wrote:
I am sure most of us prefer the lovely friendly people who actually like us to go there, instead of saying (without actually saying it) “you won’t learn our language, so f-k off”
They like us? Happy dillusion. They like us because we pay their income via tourism. That is it. Take that away and the “liking” would go away too.
I think you may be confusing Greece with another country, hugely popular with retired Brits eating fish and chips 
Dear all,
to put an end for this endless series of discusions ,just consider that this company (allready manipulating some carriers,some travel organizations and many 5* hotels)
ACTUALY wants you out.There is no other legal way to say that but to increase your expenses,time waisting,agony,lack of honest communication and billings.
Nevertheless,our previous incompetent masters managed to sell off the country’s infrastructure for nothing.The Greek banks obliged by lending 50% of the price,cause they didnt have the whole money.Next year they started “forgeting” the yearly reimbursement to the State after the logistics clearance.For further reading:
https://www.avgi.gr/oikonomia/367479_anastoli-gia-ta-lixiprothesma-meso-maximoy
Then as a concequence of the bitter covid year ,they asked the State again a contribution to their loses:
Adding some hints to @Peter previous analysis,you must understand that the Big boss is in DE ,likewise his staff chief in GR.The little GR local bosses that give you a bitter time have orders from above to do so.Now the poor illiterate yellow jacket people are (as globaly) selected for their compliance,low profile,low payments (circa 800E) including rolling shifts and no complaints.
Why the Masters succumbed to this quasi Leopold B’ manipulation is a BIG story,not to be analysed here.Just imagine that almost all Greek GA,planes,licenses,airworthinesses zeroed
after their takeover.I was lucky enough to sell just before that.BTW, @Petakas is maybe the only survivor and some bored ULs
