I published my book "Kalo Taxidi - Notes from Greece and the Greek islands in July 2011. I am now working on my next book about Greece, and adding some extracts to my blog.
Naxos airport opened in 1992. It is many years sicne I flew on one of the old Dorniers.
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Dorniers
In some ways ferry travel is one of the pleasures of travel in Greece: lazing on a sunny deck watching islands float by; getting up to watch the frenzy of activity at a port of call; then lazing again. In practice, ferry travel is not always idyllic. The sun does not always shine in Greece; sometimes the seas are rough. Ferries can be crowded. Back in the early 1990s, ferries were not as comfortable as they are today. Therefore, when Naxos airport opened in 1992, we were keen to sample the pleasures of air travel. I had know that the airport was being built and anticipated its opening with mixed feelings. Would fast travel mean that the island would become more touristy/ Certainly tourism has developed on Naxos since the early 1990s, but this can only be in very small part down to the airport. Most of the planes using the airport in the early days were 18 seat Dorniers. Some days a 50 seater was used. By the late 1990s the airport had been enlarged to take bigger planes (usually around 50 seats). However the numbers coming to Naxos by plane are very small when compared to those coming by ferry. But back to those Dorniers. You can still fly on Dorniers to some islands with small airports.
The aeroplanes are small, twin-engined, propeller- driven Dorniers. The planes are unpressurised, so that cloud sometimes seeps into the cabin. . Do not think that the planes are basic. They have a huge range of controls. Sitting behind the pilot (as one does, and the curtain dividing the passenger area from the cockpit is usually left open) you can see them all! I suspect that Dornier pilots need to be more skilled than those flying the larger planes are.
On our first flight from Naxos airport there was a minimum of formality (the airport has now been enlarged slightly, but not much Just before we were due to leave a police car arrived. The policeman got out a truncheon shaped detector, checked hand luggage, and drove off. The tiny terminal building then had about a dozen seats. The airport fire engine was a 1950-60ish machine - which looked as though it had been supplied by the local vintage vehicle club!
The seats are all singles except for one or two at the back; so most people get a window seat. The plane was unpressurised and cloud crept in through the emergency exit behind my seat. The views were excellent. The journey was very smooth apart from a bit of turbulence as we came round a mountain on the way into Athens. Baggage collection at Athens was very efficient. The little truckload of bags arrived before we did!
The problem with internal flights is that being so small the planes are often full. It is fine to book a ticket from Athens to your chosen island in advance, and to book your return ticket in advance if you know for sure which island you want to travel from. If you are island hopping, you can never be sure which island you will end up on. You can get to Athens by ferry more easily than you can get say from Anaphi to Naxos, so I do not usually book a return flight in advance. I have flown on internal flights a few times since; but usually the flights are all full.
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