Since there is a lot of interest in Greek touring on this forum, and all the challenges this entails, I though the letter below that AOPA Hellas sent to the Greek CAA and then shared with its members this morning was interesting. They are doing their best to try and free up some of the smaller island airports for easier GA use. I have no idea whether this has any chance, but they are trying. Great to see. BTW the text is google translated from Greek, so read accordingly.
OUTSIDE AIRPORT USE
Dear Commander, Mr. Dritsako,
At the meeting we had on 15 July, we discussed the subject of this correspondence and thank you for your initially positive attitude on this subject.
AOPA Hellas, identifying the serious obstacle to AIR TOURISM (Law 4582/2018 on the development of aviation thematic tourism) arising from the limited opening hours of CAA airports, proposes the evaluation of a solution that will eliminate this problem: Airports accessible Ή by Sun ", or as defined in Aviation
" Sunrise (SR) to Sunset (SS) ".
The basis of this proposal emerges from the current data that have changed in recent years in General Aviation, but mainly from the good practices of regional airports in Europe. As for the ground preparation and termination procedures of a flight, these are now done electronically by aircraft pilots with the press of a few keys on a mobile phone.
The present concerns, therefore, the Pilot Cooperation Program CAA – AOPA Hellas in order to evaluate the use of specific regional airports outside their operating hours (unmanned) for Air Tourism by the General Aviation.
The Airports are as follows:
1. Astypalea LGPL
2. Ikaria LGIK
3. Kasos LGKS
4. Kastelorizo LGKJ
5. Kalymnos LGKY
6. Kythira LGKC
7. Leros LGLE
8. Milos LGML
9. Syros LGSO
Aircraft Operator Procedures:
1. Pilot notification 24 hours in advance at the airport email or by phone
2. Information: Aircraft, number of passengers, estimated arrival, estimated departure
3. Flight Plans (FPL), exactly what happens in all ICAO Member States, ie
I. FPL filing digitally or by telephone at the nearest AIS CAA unit or at the central Reporting Office
II. Activation of FPL immediately before take-off from VHF or by phone at the nearest AIS CA unit or at the central Reporting Office
III. FPL closing after landing by VHF or by phone at the nearest AIS CA unit or at the central Reporting Office
4. Flights: Day VFR & IFR, with General Aviation Aircraft, only to and from Greek territory
5. Landings-Take-offs: SR to SS
6. VHF communications at the airport frequency with continuous position reports, intentions, etc. in “Unicom – status” self announce "by all (aircraft on the ground and in the air)
7. Pre-landing aircraft 1.000ft above the airport for visual inspection of runway surface, windshield, etc.
8. Window and runway control by the pilot before takeoff
CAA care:
For this project, you must appoint a representative of the CAA to implement all the above in collaboration with AOPA.
For example, after the appointment of a CAA representative, it should be determined which local representative (eg Municipality, police, etc.) in the islands of the above airports will provide, with a scheduled meeting, access to the airport runway through an entrance-exit door. This may well be outside an airport building, e.g. an access door to the fence.
After the end of the one-year trial period and after the identification of any needs for changes in procedures, the CAA will change this trial use to a permanent fixed procedure.
Please start the process and get in touch with the people in charge who will work with us to achieve the subject of this letter.
I will add to all of the above that AOPA-GR is a 1,2 or 3 man show at most,constantly trying to ameliorate the public sectors inactivity,lack of knowledge and fear for ANY change.Now ,combine the new deal’s induced imperialism and here you have the results.GA in GR has shrunk massively during the last 5 years but public envy will not sympathize us.
Forgot to post when I saw it but thank you for your efforts.
Just saw the discounts offered to your members in various hotels and services. That’s great too.
It is great to see Greeks continue this unrewarding work.
Whether they are more, or less, successful than any GA rep body in N Europe can be debated. GA has problems everywhere because the governments simply don’t care about it. AOPA-UK is a one-man show and achieves very little; I recall one presentation which was quite painful to watch.
I prepared a business/holiday trip to Greece. Weeks prior to my arrival I informed Zakinthos, Leros and Kreta about arrival and the days how long we attend to stay. 36h prior to my arrival in Zakinthos I informed the airport and signature again, received from signature confirmation about the requested service.
8h prior to my flight I received the information from signature for an airport slot at 4:30am!! and no parking at all.
Several phone calls didn’t change a thing.
Long story making short, I had to cancel all of my hotel and car reservation by an almost 100% cancelation fee.
I skipped Greece at all.
Expensive lessons with a country and a GA you can’t plan with.
Nice, that AOPA Greece tries to get things better done.
That’s really sad to hear.
Zakynthos focuses on the cheapest end of the tourist business (the 18-30 Club kind of thing, people from two particular countries vomiting down the street at 3am at Slaganas) and probably has practically zero GA and I am not totally surprised the airport there is completely useless. I went there some years ago and while the island was beautiful naturally it was almost impossible to get what one might call edible food – which is so out of character for Greece.
Leros was fine. I did it in 2014.
Crete works fine. Go to Sitia LGST, as a base.
Greece has always been a “pick your battles” exercise – even before Fraport took over most of the money making airports and scammed the place by jacking up the prices 5x to 10×. I always had lots of fun making the timetables line up. Some islands could be flown in between only in an F16 
But with planning you can do all the bits worth seeing, and it is a most beautiful country, with the most friendly people (I mean when not working at an airport, generally speaking 
), great food, and so much to see… I will be back in late August, Kithira LGKC, before the EuroGA fly-in to Italy.
I agree that AOPA Greece is doing the right thing. Sure, they are very small and have very little powers. But what else should they do? Give it all up completely?? Doesn’t make sense…
Reports of a certain type seem to be increasing, possibly related to Covid. I am almost sure that Kyp is aware of this recent pirep on Kithira….
A clarification for Martin Osranek and others: While the other 2-3 brands of “coordination” are not effectivity champions,the brand that Martin warns about ,is the remnant of the good old Soviet Olympic Airways.The low level personel are low payed,have a constantly insecure career,have a small knowledge of English and communication and spend a high time of presence in a disorganized environment.Now the high personel combine the Soviet nomenclature arrogance with lack of motivations concerning GA,to sit down and work towards effectivity. Guess what.. even the 14 airport foreign renter forgot to pay his dues to the government for 2019 ; instead he managed to receive gov funds as compensation for lost income for 2020 due to Covid low utilization. Cheers!
Could be, but here, the main problem was by the airport, which – if true – just changed (=reduced) opening hours from one day to the other. That will mess up anybody’s entire trip and vacation.
I am reliably informed that the above posted report on LGKC is very far from the true story.
