A screen capture of the home page for the new SkyGreece Airlines website, which went live today (April 7 2015)

Travellers curious to check SkyGreece Airlines fares and schedules, or book seats, can do so online now that SkyGreece has launched a new website.

The airline announced on Facebook today that its new site — featuring fast and easy online booking — has gone live.

The new site makes it a breeze to check prices and routes for the airline’s service between Athens, Toronto and Montreal, and between Thessaloniki and Toronto. Since March 21, when SkyGreece first announced that flights were available for booking, customers had to phone an airline reservation representative or contact a travel agent to obtain further information.

Out of curiosity, I checked fares and availability for the dates I am already booked to travel to and from Greece next month, and discovered I would have saved about $100 flying economy class on SkyGreece.

The airline offers three fare categories: economy, “economy flex” and premium.

I have reported extensively on SkyGreece Airlines … click here to see my previous posts.

SkyGreece posted this promotional offer on its Facebook page March 21

[Editor’s note: this post was updated March 25 with information about Toronto-Athens and Toronto-Thessaloniki fares]

Fare deals: SkyGreece Airlines has finally released introductory fares for its new Toronto to Athens, Toronto to Thessaloniki  and Montreal to Athens routes, which launch on May 17, 20 and 23, respectively.

In a post on the SkyGreece Facebook page March 21, the airline announced that economy class fares for a limited number of round-trip flights between Montreal and Athens will start at $899 (taxes included) for departures between May 23 and June 13. The price includes advance seat selection and two pieces of luggage weighing up to 40 kg.  Presumably, the price is in Canadian dollars.

Fares must be booked before March 27 either through travel agents or by calling SkyGreece’s North American reservations desk at 1-855-781-8585.

A “comfort class” option is available; however, the Facebook page announcement does not indicate what those particular seats cost.

The $899 fare breaks down to $334 for the flight and $565 for applicable taxes, fees and surcharges.

Flights from Toronto to Athens & Thessaloniki

In a Facebook post on March 25, SkyGreece announced that prices for its direct flights from Toronto to Athens and Toronto to Thessaloniki will start at $899 (taxes included) for departures between May 17 and June 14. These seats must be booked by April 4, and include the same advance seat selection and luggage allowances as on the Montreal to Athens flights.

As I reported in a January 29 post, the airline said it will offer three flights per week between Toronto and Athens, commencing May 17. A once-weekly flight from Toronto to Thessaloniki will start on May 20, and the Montreal to Athens route will begin operations on May 23.

The new airline will offer Canadian travellers an alternative to Air Transat and Air Canada rouge, which until now have been the only airlines with direct flights between Canada and Greece. The Transat and rouge flights are only seasonal, however, whereas SkyGreece is proposing to fly year-round.

Earlier this month, the Internet has been abuzz with word that return SkyGreece flights could be booked online for as low as US $415, including all taxes and fees. (That would be CDN $521 under current exchange rates.) Several people contacted me to say they had seen these prices on Google Flights Explore; however, when I checked, I couldn’t find any SkyGreece flights listed at all. Another person later told me he had seen a July return fare of CDN $561 for a July 5 flight.

The $899 special fare is a good deal — but I’m glad I didn’t delay booking my next trip to Greece to see if I could save money once SkyGreece released its prices. I found an even cheaper fare on Air Transat in early January and will be flying to Athens on that airline for the 11th time this spring.

Still, I’m sure the seats available at that price will be snapped up quickly. It will be interesting to see how SkyGreece’s regular fares will compare to those offered by its competition. The new routes could be appealing not just to Canadian travellers, but also to Americans living in border states a reasonable driving distance from Montreal and Toronto. With the US greenback so strong against the Canadian dollar at the moment — US $1 = CDN $1.26 at today’s exchange rates — more Americans are bound to consider flying to Greece from Canada this year.

On March 25, SkyGreece posted this announcement about promotional fares for direct flights from Toronto to Athens and Toronto to Thessaloniki

SkyGreece Airlines posted this photo of its Boeing 767-300ER  aircraft to its Facebook page today.

Routes revealed: Travellers will have more choices for direct flights between Canada and Greece beginning Sunday May 17.

That’s the day SkyGreece Airlines is expected to launch service between Athens and Toronto, with three flights per week.  On Wednesday May 20, SkyGreece will start a once-weekly flight to Toronto from Thessaloniki, and on Saturday May 23 it will debut a once-weekly departure from Athens to Montreal.

More good news: SkyGreece will offer service during winter months, too, with two flights per week from November 2015 until April 2016. (The flights to and from Thessaloniki will only be seasonal, however.)

Canadian charter airline Air Transat and Air Canada rouge, a “leisure” division of Air Canada, are the only carriers presently offering direct flights between the two countries — and only during the spring to fall travel period.

First-ever service between Thessaloniki and Canada

SkyGreece will become the first carrier to offer scheduled commercial service between Thessaloniki and Canada. The two Canadian airlines fly to and from Athens only.

The SkyGreece transatlantic schedule was revealed January 30 on the Greek Air News Facebook page. The Greek Air News report did not include any information about fares for the flights between Canada and Greece. Curiously, SkyGreece didn’t make any announcement about its new routes on either its website or its Facebook page on January 30. It did, however, post two photos of its single Boeing 767 aircraft on Facebook (including the one I have republished at the top of this post) along with the comment “The family will be growing soon!!”, which suggests SkyGreece may soon be adding more aircraft to its fleet.

But on January 31, SkyGreece did post news of its routes (indicating slightly different service starting dates than Greek Air News had mentioned.) “We have listened to the continuous demand of the Greek community in Canada and in Greece and decided to develop our flight schedule to meet the demand.,” the airline stated on its Facebook page.

Executive appointments announced

As I reported in a January 21 post, SkyGreece received Canadian regulatory approval this month to commence scheduled service between the European Community and Canada. In an announcement about the Canadian Transportation Agency decision, SkyGreece promised to unveil its “new and exciting flight program” within days.

A private company based in Athens, SkyGreece has offices in Montreal, Toronto and New York.

On January 26 the airline announced the appointment of Denis Codere as its deputy chief commercial officer, and on January 28 it announced the appointments of Eleni Kessaris and Louise Cofsky to director positions on its Canadian management team.

Facebook page photo of the SkyGreece Airlines aircraft

Application approved: Canadian travellers may soon have a third option for direct flights to and from Athens now that the Canadian Transportation Agency has approved SkyGreece Airlines’ application to offer scheduled service between Canada and Greece.

In a ruling released January 20, the Agency said it has approved the SkyGreece request “for a licence to operate scheduled international services between member states of the European Community and Canada.”

SkyGreece is a private company incorporated in Athens, It has offices in Montreal, Toronto and New York.

In a post on the SkyGreece Airlines Facebook page today, the airline said it is “extemely happy” with the Agency’s long-awaited decision.

“More great news about SkyGreece Airlines S.A. and its new and exciting flight program will be unveiled in the next few days,” the airline added.

There is no word yet on the results of SkyGreece’s similar application for a licence to offer service between Greece and the USA.

As I reported in a March 25 2014 blog post, Greek media had reported that SkyGreece was hoping to commence flights between Greece and New York during the summer of 2014. But the applications for licences to fly to Canada and America took longer than expected, and as I reported in a post on June 18 2014, SkyGreece began operating charter flights to certain destinations in Europe and north Africa instead.

Although SkyGreece has only one aircraft at present, service to Canada would give travellers an alternative to Air Canada and Air Transat, which are the only Canadian airlines currently offering direct flights between Canada and Greece.

I’ve been curious to see how competitive the SkyGreece fares will be, but even if they’re dirt cheap I won’t be flying SkyGreece to Athens — I’ve already booked flights with Air Transat for my next Greek holiday this spring. But if their prices are good, and their schedule reasonable, I definitely would consider SkyGreece for subsequent flights.

I will keep you posted on any forthcoming route and fare announcements from the airline.

This image of a flight crew posing beside the SkyGreece Airlines Boeing 767 ER was posted on the SkyGreece Facebook page this past weekend.

Excitement building: If the traffic to my blog and the number of emails I’ve been receiving recently are an accurate indication, there is a tremendous interest in SkyGreece Airlines — and especially its as-yet-unannounced schedule for flights between Athens and the United States.

For months, SkyGreece has been one of the top 3 most-searched topics on my website, while during the last few weeks I’ve received more email inquiries about SkyGreece than I’ve received about any other subject in the past two years.

People keep asking me when SkyGreece will launch flights to and from New York and Chicago, and also want to know what fares will cost. Some people are even asking if SkyGreece is hiring any flight crew or ground staff in the USA.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to answer any of the questions or provide up-to-date information because SkyGreece hasn’t released any. Until this past weekend.

Test flight over Taxiarchis Monastery on Lesvos

According to a news report on the Greek Travel Pages website, SkyGreece conducted a test flight of its Boeing 7667 ER aircraft last Friday, taking a group of airline executives and officials from the Civil Aviation Authority on a flight that passed over the Monastery of Taxiarchis at Mantamados on Lesvos island. The flight was highly symbolic since the SkyGreece plane is named Taxiarchis, after the Greek patron saint of aviators. The next day, SkyGreece updated its Facebook page with two photos of the flight crew posing next to the jet.

Without providing specific details, the GTP report added that SkyGreece will launch its year-round direct flights between Athens and New York City sometime in June.  There will be 5 flights per week between Athens and NYC in the summer, and 2 flights per week during winter. SkyGreece also plans to offer 3 flights per week from Athens to Montreal and Toronto, and at some future unspecified time will launch service to Chicago and to South Africa.

Airline awaiting flight permits from USA & Canada

GTP said that SkyGreece has obtained its licence in Greece, and is still waiting to receive permits from the United States and Canada that will allow it to operate scheduled flights to New York and Toronto. Until those permits are received, SkyGreece will offer flights on a charter basis only.

No information was provided about when the flights to Canada will commence, or what fares will cost — so please don’t email me to ask for those details! I do not have contact with anyone at SkyGreece, so I don’t have any “inside information” that I could share with you. I will post that information here on the blog if and when SkyGreece announces its schedules and prices.

And if you’re interested in employment with the airline, keep checking the SkyGreece website for possible career opportunities.  Today, the website indicated that applications for an E-Commerce IT Specialist, based in Athens, are being accepted until April 2.

For my previous reports about SkyGreece, see my January 10 2014 post and my June 25 2013 post.