Hydroplanes in the Dodekanese
19 July 2006
The people of the Cyclades and the Dodecanese will have to be patient until September for the new hydroplane flights to start. The flights will be operated by Air Sea Lines – Pegasus Aviation, a Canadian-owned company which has been given the license to run and develop the hydroplanes in Greece and who, after 60 years, is bringing back flights to islands where the boat service is not sufficient.
The first hydroplane flights in Greece started in 1925 from the Italian company Anonima Aerospresso Italiana, which had two hydroplanes that made the journey from Floisvos in Paleo Faliro in Athens to Istanbul carrying mail and goods. The flights were interrupted in 1940 with the start of World War II.
After the serious problems with the ferry schedules recently, many more representatives of local communities have talked about the necessity of the hydroplanes for the islands though not everyone is in favour.
A warm supporter of hydroplanes is the Mayor of Ios, Giorgos Pousseos who said “this will stop the isolation of many islands and offers a solution that the regular boat services are unable to give”.
The company’s first two modern hydroplanes, type DHC-6 Twin Otters with a capacity of 19 people each, are already in Greece and service the Ionian Islands. A new one is expected soon. According to the managing director Anastasio Gova, the aim of the company is to have about 30 hydroplanes within the next 5 years.
The first hydroplane flights in Greece started in 1925 from the Italian company Anonima Aerospresso Italiana, which had two hydroplanes that made the journey from Floisvos in Paleo Faliro in Athens to Istanbul carrying mail and goods. The flights were interrupted in 1940 with the start of World War II.
After the serious problems with the ferry schedules recently, many more representatives of local communities have talked about the necessity of the hydroplanes for the islands though not everyone is in favour.
A warm supporter of hydroplanes is the Mayor of Ios, Giorgos Pousseos who said “this will stop the isolation of many islands and offers a solution that the regular boat services are unable to give”.
The company’s first two modern hydroplanes, type DHC-6 Twin Otters with a capacity of 19 people each, are already in Greece and service the Ionian Islands. A new one is expected soon. According to the managing director Anastasio Gova, the aim of the company is to have about 30 hydroplanes within the next 5 years.
Apart from Patras which is already an important hub for the further expansion of the company to other areas of Greece, the company representatives predict that in the next two months the hydroplane base by the “Peace and Friendship” Stadium in Faliro and/or Lavrio will have been completed, serving passengers flying to the Aegean islands. According to Michalis Asariotis, commercial director of Air Sea Lines, “a number of test flights have taken place to a number of islands in the Cyclades and the Dodecanese”.
“We plan the opening of two hubs, one in Syros serving Milos and Ios and one in Rhodes serving Patmos and Kalymnos. At present, we have two hydroplanes that take off and land at ports or lakes (not airports), and we are expecting a third that will be amphibious. We already fly to Corfu, Paxos and Ioannina and in a fortnight’s time the bases in Ithaka and Lefkada will be operational. We will offer a morning and an evening service for every island that already has a base. As for the ticket price, the cost from Patras to Corfu is 80 Euros, from Corfu to Paxos is 35 Euros and from Corfu to Ioannina is 40 Euros.”
In future, the hydroplanes will be amphibious and take off from airports and land at ports (and vice versa) or fly from airport to airport like normal planes. The main advantage is that they will have wheels for landing on airports and floats for landing on the sea. When landing on sea, the wheels go inside the floats and for flights from airport to airport they remain down for the duration of the flight.
According to the company’s representatives, the hydroplanes will fly from sunrise to sunset while the amphibians can also fly during the night hours from airport to airport. According to Michalis Patelis, the company’s President, “the hydroplanes might even provide the solution to the connection problems that many islands face while the amphibian planes will also fly to airports too. For take off and landing in ports, the only requirement is a 180 metre stretch of sea where the waves are not above 1 metre. Each hydroplane will have no more than 5 hours flight time a day. All scheduled flights will take place from pre-selected places in each port that are sheltered from the weather while in each destination there will be alternative windless places for landing. The hydroplanes serving the islands have propellers and can fly at about 3000 metres with a maximum speed of 225 km/hour.
“We plan the opening of two hubs, one in Syros serving Milos and Ios and one in Rhodes serving Patmos and Kalymnos. At present, we have two hydroplanes that take off and land at ports or lakes (not airports), and we are expecting a third that will be amphibious. We already fly to Corfu, Paxos and Ioannina and in a fortnight’s time the bases in Ithaka and Lefkada will be operational. We will offer a morning and an evening service for every island that already has a base. As for the ticket price, the cost from Patras to Corfu is 80 Euros, from Corfu to Paxos is 35 Euros and from Corfu to Ioannina is 40 Euros.”
In future, the hydroplanes will be amphibious and take off from airports and land at ports (and vice versa) or fly from airport to airport like normal planes. The main advantage is that they will have wheels for landing on airports and floats for landing on the sea. When landing on sea, the wheels go inside the floats and for flights from airport to airport they remain down for the duration of the flight.
According to the company’s representatives, the hydroplanes will fly from sunrise to sunset while the amphibians can also fly during the night hours from airport to airport. According to Michalis Patelis, the company’s President, “the hydroplanes might even provide the solution to the connection problems that many islands face while the amphibian planes will also fly to airports too. For take off and landing in ports, the only requirement is a 180 metre stretch of sea where the waves are not above 1 metre. Each hydroplane will have no more than 5 hours flight time a day. All scheduled flights will take place from pre-selected places in each port that are sheltered from the weather while in each destination there will be alternative windless places for landing. The hydroplanes serving the islands have propellers and can fly at about 3000 metres with a maximum speed of 225 km/hour.