Flying into Athens: What to Know About Athens Airport Before You Land

Plenty of people from Northern Ireland head for Greece once the festival season is over, and Athens is the natural first stop whether the plan is a city break or a ferry out to the islands. The airport is modern and easy to navigate, but it sits well outside the city, so the decisions you make in the first half hour after landing set the tone for the whole trip. Here is what we have learned from a few arrivals, most of them late in the evening.

The airport itself

One terminal, a long way from the centre

Athens International Airport, named after Eleftherios Venizelos, opened in 2001 at Spata, roughly 30 kilometres east of the city centre. There is a single main terminal with a satellite building for some Schengen flights, which keeps things simple: arrivals are on the ground floor, departures one level up, and the metro, suburban rail and bus stops are all a short walk across the road from the terminal. Flights from the UK and Ireland land in the non-Schengen area, so allow time for passport control, especially when several wide-body flights arrive together.

Checking the day before

Athens is one of those airports where it pays to look at the live board rather than trust the booking confirmation, because summer arrivals from Greek islands and the big late-evening waves from Western Europe tend to bunch up. The English version of the Athens Airport guide covers the terminal layout, transport options and parking in one place, and its departures board for Athens Airport updates in real time, which is handy on the way back when you are deciding whether there is time for one more coffee in Plaka.

Getting into the city

There are three sensible ways in. Metro Line 3 runs straight from the airport to Syntagma Square in about 40 minutes, with trains every half hour; it is the cheapest comfortable option and the one to pick during the day. The X95 express bus runs round the clock to Syntagma and is the answer for arrivals after the last metro, though traffic can stretch the journey past an hour. A taxi has a fixed fare to the centre, higher at night, and is the only choice that drops you at the hotel door, which matters with luggage on the cobbled streets around the Acropolis.

For onward travel to the islands, the suburban railway connects the airport with Piraeus port without going through the centre, and the X96 bus does the same by road. If the ferry leaves early the next morning, staying near Piraeus rather than in central Athens saves a very early start.

A few small things

Buy the metro ticket from the machines before going down to the platform; the airport fare is a special one and the ordinary ticket will not open the gates. Keep some euros in cash for the bus and for the first taxi, and note that the airport has a decent supermarket on the arrivals level for water and snacks before a long transfer. None of this is complicated, but knowing it in advance turns a slightly tense arrival into an easy one.