Greece’s SKY express has secured slots for Athens to Heathrow from June. If it launches the route, it’ll be the third airline on the airport-pair and one of six from London.
Greece’s SKY express has received slots at Heathrow for a once-daily service from Athens, the following tweet from the ‘UK’s Aviation Schedule Analyst’ indicates. As yet, SKY express hasn’t announced the route nor put it on sale, and having slots doesn’t mean they’ll be used. But it does show its intention, and London would be an obvious addition for the fast-growing airline’s new A320neos.
Another potential carrier at London Heathrow…?
🇬🇷SkyExpress have daily slots at London Heathrow to serve Athens from 1 June 2021. Flights are not on sale at present nor is the route confirmed
SEH700 LHR (arrival) 1600
SEH701 LHR (departure) 1710 pic.twitter.com/8AI7tVTPCP— Sean M 🌈✈ (@SeanM1997) March 10, 2021
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SKY express’ A320neos key for future
SKY express initially focused on Jetstream 41s, with the type operating 38 domestic routes in 2012, data from OAG reveals, which was the last year of its exclusively Jetstream operation. With ATR-42s and -72s then being used, benefiting from significantly lower seat costs and much greater revenue opportunities, the carrier’s network passed 50 domestic routes in 2019.
The only way SKY express could expand much farther – geographically, economically, and by scale – would be with narrowbodies. It received its first A320neo in late 2020. This summer, its A320neo network will comprise Paris CDG, Brussels, Larnaca, Lyon, and Nantes, all from Athens, and Heraklion to both Dortmund and Hamburg. All are bookable.
SKY express will also use its A320neos on thick domestic routes, with these remaining key to the carrier’s fast growth. This August, they’ll be operated on three trunk routes: Athens to Thessaloniki and Rhodes, and Heraklion to Thessaloniki.
Heathrow would fit into SKY express’ network
London seems an obvious addition for SKY express alongside Paris and Brussels. Heathrow-Athens is also a large but mature market, with annual seats hovering around the 800,000-900,000 marker for most of this decade. And, as you’d expect, it’s very summer-seasonal, with summer capacity typically almost twice that of winter.
SKY express’ departure time from Heathrow, expected to be 17:10, would mean it’d arrive back into Athens at around 22:40-22:50. This would mean it would have no onward connectivity across Greece.
At first glance, this seems odd, although Paris – when it begins in June – will arrive at 22:00. For such large point-to-point markets, connections aren’t needed to any real degree, especially since they’re lower-yielding and more expensive. SKY express also won’t have multi-daily services to fill.
London to Athens has grown well
While Heathrow-Athens is a mature and therefore slow-growing market, this isn’t the same for London-Athens. It has grown well for a large market, with 2019 seeing nearly 1.6 million seats, up by nearly 400,000 since 2014.
This summer, the airport-pair is presently scheduled to have over 957,000 seats, which would be the second-highest summer on record if it all happens. And this is before SKY express is included, should it begin.
Currently five airlines on the city-pair
Five airlines are presently scheduled to operate between London and Athens this summer, involving four London airports. In order of capacity:
- British Airways: Heathrow
- Aegean Airlines: Heathrow
- easyJet: Gatwick
- Ryanair: Luton and Stansted
- Wizz Air: Gatwick and Luton
Wizz Air added Gatwick-Athens when the ULCC opened its Gatwick base in 2020. In the week that SKY express may start, Wizz Air’s Gatwick service will have four of the total 69 departures – up to 13 a day – currently bookable from London.
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