Germania

[Deborah]

Does anyone have any information about the Germania flight from Manchester on 11th May. I have been unable to find it so I called Olympic holidays who told me "at the moment it is still Germania" kind regards, Deborah

[Andy W]

You'll notice the post from D&E in this part of the forum. They were booked on the equivalent flight from Gatwick on the same date as you, and it has been cancelled, but they've been given an alternative and equally useful flight on the same date on another airline. The Germania flights are chartered by Olympic Holidays and so you won't find any real information anywhere except from Olympic, they aren't part of Germania's own scheduled flight offering.
I do think Olympic is struggling to sell enough holidays on Rhodes in early season this year and has cut back some flights to meet actual demand. Symi packages really piggyback on the Rhodes ones. If you look at the flight-only part of their website, though, the Germania flight from Manchester on the 11th is still on sale.

[silverfox]

Looks like our Germania flight in June is no more....full details to follow.

22nd June....

Small planet airlines.

Man del 7.35 and arrive Rhodes 13.45.

Depart Rhodes 14.35 and arrive Manchester 17.10

[petrostoo]

Just been notified by Olympic that our carrier on 8 June '16 from LGW has changed from Germania to Enterair
with the same timings
Never heard of this carrier never mind used them before!
Does anyone, Andy? know anything about them?

Petrostoo

[Allan]

I'm sure Andy will be able to help but I should warn you that since he is currently conducting on-the-spot research around the bars of Symi it may be a little while before he replies

[Andy W]

Enterair is a smallish Polish charter airline. Olympic has used them before when the great SmallPlanet fiasco happened a few years back.
They are an EU carrier so they are inspected to the same safety standards as all other airlines in Europe, and flight and cabin crews will have identical qualifications to all other airlines in Europe.
They are small, so any minor incident is likely to build up cumulative delays as there won't be a spare plane to use to catch back up. But Germania only has 29 planes, and managed perfectly well, and for any charter airline,having a spare plane at Gatwick when the delayed one is at Manchester is of no great help.

[petrostoo]

Many thanks for that Andy, as a seasoned traveler to Symi I wasn't worried, just unfamiliar with Enterair.

As you are checking and obviously re-checking Symi bars, any further news on Adriana's comments that ANES were using
the Symi for "gaps" in late afternoon etc slots?

Or do we just resign ourselves to an overnight in Rhodes as we land at 1515 on 8 June,therefore missing the 1500 ferry and the evening
departures don't start 'till 15 June?

Petrstoo

[Andy W]

ANES were using the "Symi" to fill in gaps on days where there was no ferry service to Symi at all, on the winter timetables. Some of these were evening runs purely because the ship had operated to Marmaris and back in the daytime and the evening was the only free time.
But the early summer timetables have now started and Symi has two or more ferries every day, so the "Symi" ferry has reverted to its normal operations.
As far as I can see, no shipping line has any intention of operating a Wednesday evening service until mid June, because the small number of people who arrive too late for the 15:00 ferry but early enough for a 19:00 aren't enough to cover the cost of the diesel and crew overtime. This changes as the season gets busier, but it is certainly the case that the overwhelming majority of visitors to Symi these days make their own travel arrangements and aren't on packages where they lose a day on the island because of the lack of connections, which is very different to even 15 years ago.

[Gemma1]

Received a letter from Olympic yesterday regarding the changes to my Wednesday afternoon flight in September which is now with Small Planet instead of Germania. The flight time has only changed by an hour so can't complain - though it does mean I don't arrive in Rhodes until 0040. As I now arrive after midnight I'm hoping Olympic will still put me up 'somewhere' in Rhodes for the first night. Of course it also means I'm an hour later leaving Rhodes on the way back - hope I can stay awake until my 0130 departure

Shame the flight couldn't have been an hour earlier instead of an hour later but flight changes rarely go the way you want them. We're flying to Kefalonia with Olympic in June and that flight has also changed by an hour from 0600 to 0500 Now an hour later for Kefalonia and an hour earlier for Symi would have been much much better but we can't choose the way the flights change unfortunately. Definitely won't be going to bed before the Kefalonia flight as we're now leaving for the airport at 1am - hopefully I can have a snooze on the plane

[petrostoo]

Thanks for extensive update Andy, yes aware of increase in numbers later in year - we've been coming in September frequently since early 90's.
However, we're bringing 6 friends for their first visit to Symi and could only do early June as we're committed to China this September. Used to do independent, but got spoiled by Kosmar's 2 weeks for the price of 1! Also now, Olympic's buying power has got us a good deal at Lapetos Village with 4 maisonettes for our group.