Athens Loses Direct Air Connections To Major Destinations

Singapore Airlines will cease routes to Athens as of 26 October 2012 due to “sustained weak performance,” the Greek travel industry was informed last month. This was just the most recent hit as many carriers have already announced plans to stop direct flights to the Greek capital.

Delta Airlines also announced its intention to suspend its daily direct New York-Athens flights as of 26 October, a development that will allow travel to the US from Greece only via connection with other airports in Europe.

US-based Delta is the only remaining carrier to operate direct New York-Athens flights, as Olympic Air and Continental also ceased their direct Greece-US flights, as did United Airlines. US Airways currently flies the Athens-Philadelphia connection but, according to reports, the route will stop after this summer season.

Meanwhile, Air Canada now connects Montreal to Athens via two instead of three flights a week and the airline will not increase its flights to Toronto as originally planned.

Greece also lost its connection to Bangkok since Thai Airways quit the Greek market after 36 years of presence.

Gulf Air also stopped flights that linked Athens to Bahrain and Damascus.

Aegean Airlines will soon have the monopoly of flights to Prague from Athens as Czech Airlines has stopped its flights to the Czech capital and SmartWings is expected to follow the same example.