Tom right now in Athens we are going through a very bad period regarding GA.
Athens Hellenikon LGAT, which until last week was accomodating GA VFR traffic, has officially closed.
Marathon airfield LGMR to the NE of the city closed last year because Athens 2004 Olympics padling installations are being constructed there. :(
There are no Governement plans as to where GA could be moved. :(
On the other hand new Athens Venizelos Intl. LGAV http://www.aia.gr is by no means a GA airport. Officially you can go with VFR routes etc. but there are costs involved for landing, parking & handling not to forget big problems with moving through the airport's landside. (FlightPlanning office , Parking etc etc.) Imagine it like visiting (well ... not Heathrow ! but) Gatwick with a PA28. You are allowed (I think) but ....
So the 4~5 airclubs currently in Athens including private owners have left intentionally their light aircraft in Hellenikon LGAT apron stranded and did not move them away during the one month "departures only" period that we were given by the Government.
Everybody shouts out loud that LGAT should remain open with a smaller piece operational at least until the 2004 Olympics. The problem is that we have a 4 by 2 Km piece of land few miles from the City center right on the coast of the capital. You can imagine the value of this land and the greedy hands (private & government) who want GA out !
Right now GA in Athens is on a standstill waiting for further unknown developments. There are some Military fields arround the City but they do not accept GA traffic.
On the other hand ... Skiathos has very limited parking problems. Like last year, I am sure they will soon issue a NOTAM that GA is not allowed from May till Sept. Simple as that. Last year in order to visit them once I had to make phonecalls upon phonecalls with the airport manager to accept me in. The operation was planned even more efficiently than an IFR flight ! The reason is that Skiathos apron has space for only three 737 size aircraft and in the Summer the charter traffic coming in and out is chaos. They (airport mngnt) actually base their planning solely on apron movement and space. One charter gets delayed more than 30~45 minutes and they have to divert to Thessaloniki for an hour and come back later to park, dissembark, clean, refuel, embark and go all under one hour. Apron space restraints are due to the new terminal beeing built which has actually "steped" on part of the apron. Some land is beeing reclaimed across the other side for a new apron next year. Indeed when I parked there was barelly space for the tiny TB09 and this in an unofficial parking space which airport admin. had indicated to me beforehand. We were few feet in front of the 737's nose !
Typically if you do a checkout (1~3 hours) with one of Athens's flying clubs like http://www.aeroservices.gr or http://www.globalaviation.gr they will charge you ~150 EUR per hour wet for light singles and with a UK PPL you are ready to fly without any other CAA paperwork requirements. Now the problem, as you undestand, is that noone flies this period including Aeroservices and GlobalAviation.
We are really astonished from the events awaiting further developements.
Few more Greek aviation websites
http://www.aviation.gr
http://www.eexi.gr/spa
http://www.hcaa-eleng.gr/index_en.html (check "Greek airports")
http://avsim.com/greece/hvacc (about simulated airtraffic - charts etc.)
There is another Flying club in Tatoi Dekelia military airport NW of town "Athens airclub" (the oldest in town) http://www.eexi.gr/spa/athensairclub.htm (sorry Greek !) which remains unaffected by all this sistuation but it is really hard to get a rental plane and fly off crosscountry from this club. Too much bearochrassy and mainly a training school (very good) but not supporting post PPL rental.
At your disposal for further information.
Now since this was a unhappy message, cjeckout some pictures of what we (incl. you !) miss right now http://www.airliners.net/search/
[email protected] (one long URL)