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Skiathos Alexandros Papadiamantis International Airport,
Greece, September 2024

Skiathos is a peaceful, beautiful little island 80 miles north-west of Athens. It has its own international airport in a very restricted space just north of the main town, which is imaginatively named Skiathos. The runway is short, sloping considerably, with a short flat area freshly built at the north end. With no parallel taxiways, there are turning circles at both ends, and back-tracking is the order of the day for most landings and all take-offs. Most operations use runway 01, so take-offs involve tracking down the runway from the centrally-situated terminal area before making a 180 turn.

At each end of the runway there is a road, a bit of beach, and then the Aegean sea. Because of this, all landings are 'positive' and undercarriage damage is fairly common. Indeed a Sunclass Airlines A321, OY-TCG, overstressed its undercarriage so badly during landing on 15th September that it was still stranded there during our visit, which was from the 23rd to 30th September. (I couldn't get any decent photos of it).

The southern turning circle is VERY close to the road and the sea, and is an aircraft spotter's paradise – the aircraft are close and do a pirouette so that they can be photographed at all angles. Lots of waving between pilots, spectators and passengers occurs. There's also a very handy cafe right there, offering, in order of importance, shade, beer and food. There's time to enjoy it because, with ramp space for only five or six airliners, there are relatively few operations, maybe averaging three an hour during high season.

It's a lovely experience, like a sleepy Saint Maarten, to which it's often compared. Just don't get caught in the jet blast. I guess all pilots apply full power on take-off – we saw one man getting hurled into the sea, and there are jagged rocks around…

I've put photos of airport-related subjects below the aircraft photos. Click here for them.


Operator Aircraft Reg'n Thumbs Notes
Avanti Air Bombardier Dash-8 Q400 D-AASG Ex G-JEDR
easyJet Airbus A320neo G-UJEB  
easyjet Airbus A320neo G-UZLX NEO livery
Flying Group Cessna 525B CitationJet 3+ LX-FYG  
Greek Air Force Canadair CL-215 pair 1067 and 1069 Just flying over.
Greek Air Force Canadair CL-215 1067  
Greek Air Force Canadair CL-215 1069  
Jet2 Boeing 737-800/W G-DRTX Ex TC-SCG
Jet2 Boeing 737-800/W G-JZBA Our ride back to Manchester.
Jet2 Boeing 737-800/W G-JZBC Jet2holidays livery
Jet2 Boeing 737-800/W G-JZBG Jet2holidays livery. The traffic lights are the only ones on the island.
Jet2 Boeing 737-800/W G-JZHK Jet2holidays livery. Our ride from Manchester.
Jet2 Boeing 737-800/W G-JZHN Jet2holidays livery
Jet2 Boeing 737-800/W G-JZHO 'HO visited on two consecutive days. On the second day, Olympic Air ATR SX-OBT had just landed and was turning at the north circle when 'HO emerged from the apron for take-off, leading to dual-occupancy of the runway for a while.
Jetstream Charter Cessna 650 Citation III HA-JEO  
Olympic Air ATR-72-600 SX-OBI Ex EI-FMJ
Olympic Air ATR-72-600 SX-OBM Ex VH-FVR
Olympic Air ATR-72-600 SX-OBP Ex PR-ATJ, OY-YCO
Olympic Air ATR-72-600 SX-OBR Ex EI-FAX
Olympic Air ATR-72-600 SX-OBT  
Ryanair (Buzz) Boeing 737-800/W SP-RKQ Ex EI-GDI
Ryanair (Buzz) Boeing 737-800/W SP-RKT Ex EI-GDH
Ryanair (Buzz) Boeing 737-800/W SP-RSM Ex EI-FZX
Ryanair (Buzz) Boeing 737-800/W SP-RSR Ex EI-GDB
Ryanair (Malta Air) Boeing 737-800/W 9H-QAU Ex EI-GDC.
SAS Airbus A320neo LN-RGN Scandinavian Airlines livery
SAS Airbus A320neo SE-ROF Scandinavian Airlines livery
SAS Airbus A320neo SE-RZZ  
Sky Express ATR-72-600 SX-IPO  
Sky Express ATR-72-600 SX-TFI  
Sky Helicópteros Cessna 560 Citation Ultra EC-JFT  
TUI Airways Boeing 737-800/W G-TAWC  
TUI Airways Boeing 737-800/W G-TAWW Ex D-ATUQ
TUI Airways Boeing 737-800/W G-TUKV Ex PH-TFB, OO-TNB
TUI Airways Boeing 737 Max 8 G-TUMU  

Airport etc.

Subject Thumbs Notes
Runway Showing the slope from the south and the top level part from the north turning circle.
Control tower  
Terminal 2 (International)  
Southern turning circle View from our 737 showing the proximity of the spectators, road and sea.
Warning signs Two views of the same three signs.
Cafe Amaretto menu  

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