Getting From Athens To The Islands Without Losing Your Mind
I've spent more hours than I care to admit hovering over booking engines at 11pm, trying to decide whether Sky Express or Aegean makes more sense for a given route. Most people treat this as a straightforward loyalty program question. It isn't. The real answer depends on which island you're going, what time of year it is, and whether you've ever tried to catch a connection through Thessaloniki during July. Aegean is the bigger carrier. They have the Miles+Bonus program, a proper hub at Athens (ATH), and code-share agreements that make them visible on almost every international booking site. Sky Express is smaller, focused heavily on domestic routes and island hopping, and operates out of smaller terminals where you can actually walk onto the plane without looking like you're invading someone's office. The network overlap is limited. Aegean flies to Santorini, Mykonos, Crete, Rhodes, Chania, Corfu, and a handful of other destinations. Sky Express covers many of the same islands plus places Aegean simply doesn't serve — things like Ikaria, Samothrace, Leros, Kalymnos, and smaller Cycladic islands that only get a couple flights per week. If your destination isn't on the Aegean list, the question resolves itself immediately.
Where it gets messy is when both carriers serve the same route. Athens to Santorini, for example. Aegean runs multiple daily flights on this route using A320s. Sky Express flies the same route on smaller ERJ-145s, usually with just one or two departures per day. The fare difference fluctuates wildly depending on demand. Aegean's dynamic pricing means their tickets to Santorini in August can easily run 60 to 80 percent more than Sky Express. But Sky Express sometimes sells out completely on peak summer Saturdays, and then you're stuck. Baggage policies differ in ways that matter. Aegean includes 23kg checked baggage on most Economy Standard fares and above. Sky Express includes 20kg on their basic fare, but some promotional tickets you'll find on comparison sites only include hand luggage. I learned this the hard way on a trip to Naxos last September when I showed up at the gate with a checked bag and was quoted a same-day fee that exceeded what the checked bag would have cost if I'd just booked the right fare tier from the start. That error cost me about forty-five euros on the spot. Never again. The check-in experience reflects the size difference. Aegean's Athens terminal is busy, loud, and requires you to arrive 40 minutes before domestic departures if you have bags to check. Sky Express uses separate facilities — at Athens they operate out of Terminal B, which is quieter, has shorter lines, and where you can arrive 30 minutes before departure without anyone giving you a look. For island routes that depart from secondary airports like Heraklion or Mykonos, the difference is even starker. Aegean gates can feel like a queue at a government office during high season. Sky Express lets you wander in five minutes before boarding and still find your seat.
Punctuality is worth examining separately. Aegean generally maintains better on-time performance across their network because they control more of their scheduling and have larger maintenance operations. Sky Express has had seasons where their punctuality drops noticeably, particularly in the Cyclades where weather disruptions cascade quickly and the airline has fewer backup aircraft to rotate in. I've missed connections as a result. Not often, but enough that I now keep a mental note of which Sky Express flights are single-day services with no afternoon alternatives. For the Miles+Bonus angle, Aegean is the clear advantage if you fly internationally or connect through Athens to places like Berlin or Vienna. Their partnership with Star Alliance means you can earn and redeem miles across Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, United, and the rest of the network. Sky Express has no alliance affiliation. They occasionally run promotions that transfer points to other programs, but nothing consistent enough to build a strategy around. If loyalty points matter to your travel pattern, Aegean earns the edge here. The fleet situation affects comfort more than people expect. Aegean's domestic fleet is almost entirely A320 family aircraft — one aisle, six seats across, standard business class product on longish routes. Sky Express flies a mix: ERJ-145s with a 2-by-1 configuration (tight but functional for short hops), someATR 42/62 turboprops for very short island routes, and occasionally a dash-8 on routes where they need the short-field capability. The ERJ-145s are cramped if you're over six feet. The ATRs are charming in the right context and unbearable in the wrong one — no pressurization comfort on a hot August day with the prop noise drilling into your skull for twenty minutes.
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Here's something most comparison guides miss: the pricing models interact differently with last-minute bookings. Aegean's fares tend to be more stable closer to departure because they have higher capacity on popular routes and can absorb demand shifts. Sky Express, with fewer seats per day, sees price spikes that are sharp and sudden. A flight to Milos that costs 45 euros two weeks out might hit 120 euros forty-eight hours later. Aegean's Athens-Milos route might go from 75 to 110 in that same window. The relative difference compresses at the last minute, which surprises people who assume Sky Express is always the cheaper option. I run into this problem on a regular basis when helping people plan island itineraries. The workaround is simple but easy to overlook: check both carriers simultaneously, but set a deadline. If Sky Express is 30 percent cheaper and has availability, book it immediately. Don't wait to see if Aegean drops. Aegean rarely drops on domestic Greek routes during peak season, and Sky Express fares only get worse. The only exception I've found is when Aegean runs a flash sale on their website, which happens roughly twice a year and lasts about seventy-two hours. Those sales usually exclude the tightest routes and the cheapest fare classes anyway. Customer service is another area where scale creates a real difference. Aegean has a call center, active social media support, and an app that actually works for rebooking when flights get cancelled. Sky Express's customer service is adequate but thinner. During the 2023 summer storm disruptions, Sky Express rebooking lines were unreachable for most of a Saturday afternoon. I watched people strand at the airport with no resolution until Monday morning. Aegean's passengers on the same routes were getting alternative routing through their app within thirty minutes. This isn't a fair comparison every single time, but it happens often enough in Greek aviation that it shapes my recommendation.
For budget-conscious travelers who don't need flexibility, Sky Express is genuinely competitive. Their basic fare to places like Skiathos or Skopelos can undercut Aegean by forty to sixty percent on off-peak dates. The trade-offs are real though: fewer flight options per day, higher last-minute pricing risk, less robust rebooking infrastructure, and potentially tighter aircraft on routes that switch between jet and turboprop depending on demand. Aegean wins on consistency, network coverage, and the Miles+Bonus program. Sky Express wins on certain island routes, check-in convenience, and price on advance bookings. Neither is universally better. The right choice changes depending on your destination, your timing, and whether you've ever had a flight cancelled during a meltemi wind event and needed help getting somewhere else the same day. One final practical note that catches people out: both airlines have different policies on seat selection. Aegean charges for standard seat assignment on their lowest fare tiers. Sky Express often includes free seat selection even on basic fares. If you're traveling as a group or with family and want to sit together, this detail can flip the economics on a route where the base fares are otherwise similar. Book early, compare the total with seat selection included, and don't assume the cheaper-looking fare is actually cheaper when you add everything up.
