New GA facility in Athens Greece

[Kyprianos Biris]

If you plan to visit Athens after the end of June 2005 you can plan to fly via this airport :

http://hellasga.com/gallery/lgmg

Pahi Megara LGMG field, 40 km west of the city.

It is of great significance because since 2001 (when Marathon LGMR closed) Athens has not had a dedicated GA facility. Military aiprorts of LGTT & LGTG serve GA nowadays but the restricted access prevents non based operators from visiting Athens easily.

The dedicated GA apron you see in the pictures was constructed for the 2004 Olympic Games GA traffic and now will be handed over for permanent use.

For the record, there is also the 2 year old Ikaros (http://www.aopa.gr/en/infosdetails.asp?NEWS_ID=2) private GA airfield, 110Km NW of Athens.

[hammerman]

Thank you for posting this item. I have been trying very hard to find out about renting/flying in Greece and Athens area. Would be very grateful if you could provide further information about clubs operating from either Pahi Megara.

Isn't Pahi Megara a military airport? Is it difficult to get the paperwork? Is it difficult to get to from Glyfada?

[Kyprianos Biris]

if you could provide further information about clubs operating from either Pahi Megara.

If you go to www.hellasga.com -> Aviation Links you will find the current active Training & Rental organizations & aeroclubs that have websites.

Aeroservices & Global (I assume) will be there as soon as it opens for GA.

Also check Dekeleia & Mesogeion aeroclubs. They currently operate from LGTT

Also check www.aopa.gr Information about flying in Greece.

Isn't Pahi Megara a military airport?

It is. This very period HCAA is in close cooperation with the Army in order to produce a viable solution for the GA operators in Athens area via Megara airport. The outcome details are unknown yet but the aim is to produce something GA oriented (operation hours etc.) i.e. non restrictive.

Is it difficult to get the paperwork?

There is some paperwork but it is not a real hastle when HCAA is on site:
-Pay fees
-General Declaration form (names of people on board)
-Flight Plan submition
-Filing of a statistics form for HCAA

Current daily charge for airport use in Greece is 1.63 Euro (all incl.) irrespective of number of landings or how many airports you visit.
The airport tax charge per passenger per landing is ~13 Euro (crew exempted). The above are charged only at HCAA public airports (Private & Military are exempted)

Is it difficult to get to from Glyfada?

Glyfada is SE of Athens and Megara is West. By car its dead easy, coastal road (northwest)) to main Athens-Lamia motorway junction before Pireas, head north and then left (west) on Attiki ring road. About 60km non stop highway/motorway drive.

Alternativelly take public transport to city center and pick the suburban railway to Megara. This brand new railway will start operations very soon.
You can see it in the pictures from my original post.

[IO540]

Great news!

A country with such fantastic scenery (and weather, most of the time) should have free flying as a basic human right :O

[hammerman]

Fantastic, thank you very much Kyp, btw your photos are superb. I could not get through to anyone in Ikaros to find out about clubs operating there. The caretaker doesn't speak English. I have contacted Global Aviation mentioned on the Ikaros site about rental. On first contact they said they only operate from Tanagra but they sound friendly and ready to help, so waiting for the person in charge to get back to me.

I will look at the links you have mentioned but please if you have any recommendations, don't hestitate. I will post your information on the other forums if it is OK with you, there are others like me who would love to fly in Greece.

Thank you again for a great post and answering my questions.

Keep AVIATING!

Ah ooops I see you have mentioned some clubs, thanks.

[Kyprianos Biris]

No, Ikaros does not have based flight training operators. Only private aircraft for now.

As for recommendations I cannot do this in a public forum.

I suggest you contact all of the ones I recommended you and judge on your own ;)

If you end up somewhere contact me privatelly for more details.

[Kyprianos Biris]

Latest news :
http://www.iaopa-eur.org/wstore/contentServlet

There is a media session on 19/5 from the ministers that will inform the public on upcoming inauguration of this new GA facility.

AOPA Hellas (http://www.aopa.gr) is organizing some 35~40 GA aircraft to be present during the media session.

The NOTAM on LGMG for that day (source https://www.notams.faa.gov/ ):

D0154/05 - MEGARA/MIL ARMY REF AIP (VOL I, AGA 3-13) 1.CAA SERVICES PROVIDED FOR GENERAL AVIATION HELICOPTERS. 2.CAA SERVICES PROVIDED FOR GENERAL AVIATION LIGHT AIRCRAFT WITH A MTOW BELOW 5.700 KGS ARRIVING TO LGMG FROM GREEK AIRPORTS AND DEPARTING ACCORDINGLY. 3.CAA SERVICES AVAILABLE DAILY FROM 0500-1630 UTC. TELEPHONE +2296023601. 4.FIRE PROTECTION CATEGORY III(3). 5.AVGAS 100LL AND JET-A1 FUEL AVAILABLE BY BP. 6.FOR AERODROME OPERATIONAL DATA REF TO AIP GREECE, VOL I,AGA 3-13. 7.VFR FLIGHTS WITHIN ATHENS TMA SHOULD FOLLOW VFR ROUTES AND ALTITUDES AS PUBLISHED IN AIP GREECE VOL II PAGE LGAV 23/03 OCT 2002/12. 19 MAY 05:00 UNTIL 19 MAY 16:30

[IO540]

No Customs I take it then. One has to stop at LGKR on the way there. Such hardship :O

[Kyprianos Biris]

No Customs I take it then. One has to stop at LGKR on the way there. Such hardship
Not for a start IO540 ! Treat it like a new airport; good things come to those who wait. Since Marathon LGMR closed in 2001, Athens has been waiting for a new dedicated GA facility.

Today was only the inauguration event.
Actual flight operations start last week of June.

In the second page of this album you can see some pictures from the event:
http://hellasga.com/gallery/lgmg

Many nice words were heard today from the ministers regarding the short term plans like : VORDME installation with full IFR procedures, complete night approach & runway lighting, H24 operations and much more.

[Kyprianos Biris]

At last :ok: the new GA facility for Athens Greece opens its doors Sunday 31 July 2005, 0500 UTC.

Still it is not an "airport of entry" (for international flights) but at least the first important step has been achieved.

[IO540]

Great news. I am too lazy to look it up in the Greek AIP (which doesn't exist online :O ) so... can one depart from there for another country, Schengen or not?

[Kyprianos Biris]

so... can one depart from there for another country, Schengen or not?

Not yet.
It is not an "airport of entry".

The facility just started operations.
We'll have to wait a bit longer for such good news.

[IO540]

Sorry, I should be stated it more clearly. Can one DEPART from there for a Schengen or a non-Schengen country? I know e.g. Switzerland has DEPARTURE Customs; does Greece have the same?

[Kyprianos Biris]

You still cannot depart from a Greek non "airport of entry" towards a Schengen state.

This is something that :* we hate and fight it to our best abilities especially via AOPA Hellas (http://www.aopa.gr/)

The trick to the issue is that as a passenger you can travel freely within Schengen states i.e. swim to Italy!. There is a clause in the treaty, though, that allows these states to imply local Customs regulations when it comes to vehicles and this is the excuse Greek state authorities still use in order to pass us through a police check (not passport control officially) when we go abroad. What is hidden behind it is a need for police check for private flights going "abroad" due to the facilities these flights provide for unlawfull (cargo) activities. Because they cannot force all of us to land on this basis the excuse of the customs obligation (although no custom officer ever checks the "vehicle") is used in order for someone to "filter" the traffic in and out of the country.

Don't forget we're Southeastern EU border country and according to what I've heard this is another the reason our state authorities still want to keep an eye on private flying transfers abroad even if its towards/from EU/Schengen countries.

So yes , for example, leaving Athens or arriving to Athens you still have to fly via i.e. Kerkyra (Corfu) LGKR in order to pass through an "airport of entry". It is :yuk: they still impose us these regulations only for GA but we have to face it.

Last year a friend (SX-GEB here (http://homepage.mac.com/gmang/PhotoAlbum25.html) ) flew VFR to Italy from a private field NW of Athens to a private field in S Italy. He let everyone know about it (nothing secret) including details in the FPL. When Athens FIC queried him (while airborne) of his intentions he explained he is flying intrachengen and he declines to comply with their request to pass via Kerkyra. In the end nothing happened when he came back again the same way few days later. Still though the law is clear and this could have been an exception due to kind ATCO's :O

I personnally have a letter from Hellenic CAA confirming me this weird status (passenger vs vehicle within Schengen) and we are using it to fight it via the ministry of Tourism ;)

Picture of LGMG apron 2hrs ago:
http://hellasga.com/gallery/lgmg/DSC00925

[IO540]

Thank you for the explanation.

p.s. excellent choice of aircraft at Megara :O

But I did wonder why the picture was retouched to hide a little area - is it some military stuff which they aren't allowed to photograph?

[Kyprianos Biris]

Megara is the Hellenic Army Aviation's airlift command base with Chinooks and Huey's all over the base. Still photograpghy is not allowed in such places (no comments please :} ) and hence the editing. It's really stupid with the internet and pictures like this one (http://www.planes.cz/foto1.asp?mode=detail&id=AJRZCQOS&jazyk=en) (wrongly named as LGEL pic) freely available but what can you say ...

The funniest part was when we had the commencement ceremony for Megara with Ministers of Defence & Transport present and the Hellenic Army based all of its hi tec powerpoint presentation for future LGMG development on this very picture which I informed them about during our first meetings (was representing AOPA Hellas). You should have seen their faces :oh: "where did you find this ?!!" :oh: Offcourse, they never mentioned the picture source.

Re: the aircraft in the picture.
IO-540 I'm an IO-540 rider as well ;)
Socata made some good sales (30~40 aircraft) in Greece in the mid 90's. Check the Megara album (http://hellasga.com/gallery/lgmg), the hangar & office complex you see (first in Megara) belongs to Aeroservices, the Socata & Eurocopter dealer for Greece. More (Piper & Cessna dealers, Flying schools etc.) are coming as their building permits are about to be approved from HCAA.

Nice to have your A&P within few meters of your parking space. This is another thing we suffered from all these years since 2001 when LGMR closed. We had mechanics running all over the place with mini vans and tents to work on the apron at 40*C sometimes. Well that ain't happening any more :O