For information on charter flights out of Gatwick and Manchester, England to Crete, Corfu, Rhodes, Kos, Skiathos, Zakynthos, Larnaca and Paphos…. click here

Every Year since I can remember(at least 30), there have been charter flights from NY to Athens. These were usually low cost, a little unorganized, inconvenient in some ways and generally the best thing you could say about them was that they were cheap. While fares are expensive this year, the last hope of low fares to Greece was through the charter flights.

I spoke with Homeric Tours and they have decided not to offer charter flights this year because the cost of fuel is too high. So that is the end of any hopes of getting low fares to Greece this year(Now that the charter is not available and the flights to Greece are so high- I have this little warm spot in my heart that longs for the good ol’ days of the horrible, yet inexpensive charters…)

If you’re looking to get to Greece this year and were hoping to catch the charter, it’s time that you searched a little harder through commercial airlines or using the strategies that I’ve outlined on GreeceFlights.

After just getting off the phone with Olympic to find out when their sales are coming out…and to be told “not as long as people are purchasing tickets at these fares”, I thought about plan B. How about the dependable charters that are a bit of an inconvenience but relatively inexpensive(especially compared to the inflated fares for this year!).

I called Homeric and their response was…”maybe in two weeks we’ll have the schedule out”. This schedule is usually out by now and certainly has not been released in April in the past. I’m not sure why there’s a delay, but I don’t see any inexpensive alternatives to getting to Greece until the schedule is released(but another part of me is cringing that they may take advantage of the high fares and charge exceptionally high fares for their less than stellar service.

You may want to read up a little on the charter flights to see if it is something you even want to wait around for….

I’m more familiar with the charters to Greece, but they all work(or don’t work?) about the same. Actually, the charters are a good low cost alternative to the commercial airlines. You will save money(especially if you are trying to purchase flights on a commercial airline for the peak season). You will give up some comfort(the planes usually hold a lot more people which means the seats are closer together and staff is usually kept to a minimum). I’ve flown charters a few times(NY-Greece twice) and London-Athens. The NY-Greece flights were on Tower Air(out of business) and was tolerable, although having 2 people check in 400 passengers was a long wait. The flights from London reminded me of a high school bus trip, being a planeload of young Brits off on their holiday of fun in the sun.(The destination didn’t matter, as long as there was sun, beach, fish and chips and Beer). If you go to www.GreeceFlights.com there is an index on the side of the page with 3 articles on chartering flights that you may find helpful.(Charter Flights From the US, Charter Flights From Europe, Is a Charter Flight Right For You?)

I’m waiting for the schedule for the North American Charter Flights to Greece(from NY) for 2006 and will post them on the GreeceFlights.com site when I get them.