Sky Express Athens-London Heathrow Economy Airbus A320neo

Background

Sky Express is one of a new generation of low cost airlines in Europe that are trying to be different from the ultra low cost model such as that provided by Ryanair, whilst not charging the premium prices and draconian rules of the traditional flag carrier.  

Athens-based Sky Express was founded in 2005 and operates a relatively small fleet of 25 aircraft comprising state of the art Airbus A320neo for their eight international routes, along with 15 ATR turboprop aircraft for domestic Greek operations.

To me, airlines such as Sky Express are the sweet spot between what can be very expensive full fare airlines and the often mind boggling array of optional extras of the low cost airlines that you sometimes need to buy just to make the flight that bit more bearable.

Sky Express' product offering is fairly simple.  They have three fare buckets: Sky Joy, Sky Joy+ and Sky Enjoy. Sky Joy is the cheapest simple entry level product which offers one small cabin bag and that's about it.  Sky Joy+ brings a checked bag and one free change of flight.  Sky Enjoy brings a larger checked bag allowance and more flexibility, including same day changes, along with priority security.  None of the fare buckets offer lounge access or inflight catering however.

There is one key product offering that caught my eye though and hence why I booked today's flight back from Athens to Heathrow.  For just €15, you can buy a seat in the first ten rows of the aircraft and, joy of joys, they block the middle seat - something you only normally see on European business class products.  I don't know of any other European low cost airline that offers this.  It's a cracking idea for people like me who work on flights and value the privacy and space.  For a longer European sector length as this is, €15 is a steal.

Check In

Sky Express doesn't have a mobile app but does have a mobile optimised site which worked well on my iPhone for both booking and checking in.  Armed with my mobile boarding pass, I was through security in Athens in record time.  I'm always impressed with the security experience at Athens and today was another good experience.  Staff are polite and professional.

The Lounge

Being a low cost airline, Sky Express doesn't have any of its own branded lounges.  Instead, in Athens, I relied on my Priority Pass card and visited the Skyserv Aristotle Onassis Lounge.   

Priority Pass cardholders actually have the choice of two lounges here in Athens Hall A (non-schengen flights) - the other being the Goldair Handling Lounge.  Neither is what you would call elegant or top notch, but it's a place to while away a couple of hours and in this lounge, to get a cold kebab and tomato sandwich for breakfast which was surprisingly good!

The lounge got busier before I left as this lounge also caters to the premium passengers of several US-bound flights departing at roughly the same time.

Boarding

Recently, across several flights from Athens, I have been taken to the plane by bus and today was no exception.  Sky Express doesn't offer priority boarding for even its most expensive 'Sky Enjoy' passengers, so there was no loss on this particular flight.  

Today's Airbus A320neo was  brought into service brand new with Sky Express just over a year ago so as you'd expect, felt fully functional.  My seat was certainly well presented and oddly had a curtain just a few rows behind.  This is unusual as Sky Express doesn't offer a business or premium class cabin on any of its flights.  Perhaps a sign of things to come, who knows.

The sweet spot on Sky Express, is this €15 blocked middle seat.  Sky Express offers this on all of its international flights and covers the first 5-10 rows (depending on forecasted demand).  You pay your supplement at the time of booking, choose your seat (1A for me today) and the first few rows have seats B and D blocked from sale.  These days European business class on full fare airlines is usually nothing much to write home about, but I do value the blocked middle seat highly, so to find it on a low cost airline, for such a low price, is reason itself why I'd choose Sky Express over other airlines.  It's not all milk and honey though, as we'll see later in the flight.

The Flight

As we started our taxi out to the runway, we got to see a British Royal Air Force Voyager (military version of the long haul Airbus A330) aircraft, also departing.  The UK leisure airline, Jet2, leases some of these aircraft from the RAF during their busy summer season.

After take off, we were treated to some outstanding scenery as we climbed out of Athens.  The Greek islands are so picturesque when you get a nice clear day like today.  The haze just adds to the effect.

I was able to plug my phone into the USB chargers found two per row of seats and it worked fine throughout.  Sky Express doesn't offer wifi, but sometimes that's a good thing.  For today, I cracked on with some work and sat back staring down over Piraeus.  

Seating is all economy and has a typical 31-34" seat pitch depending upon where you are seated.  In common with other low cost airlines, Sky Express offers the purchase of extra legroom seats at the time of booking.  

Catering service began about 50 minutes into the flight and by this point I was getting hungry (see below).  

Unfortunately, there was a bit of a fracas between two passengers further back and, as it transpires, one of our fellow passengers took offence as his seat neighbour was talking to him too much, apparently. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be of any real interest to me but, sadly, the offended passenger noticing our blocked middle seat asked the flight attendant to come and sit here.  Unfortunately, the flight attendant agreed with the request.  So, that €15 spend suddenly felt like wasted money.  

For the rest of the flight things remained fine and the flight attendants were pleasant enough with a few runs of the drinks cart.

Food and Drink

Sky Express, as with most low cost airlines, provides a buy on board service and the menu is quite extensive.  You can even get Moet, if the mood takes you.

On today's flight, I bought a turkey and cheese sandwich deal, which came with a can of Coke, for €6.  To be fair, the box came with two sandwiches.  The coke though was fun size or 'airline' size, as the industry likes to justify it. The sandwich tasted fresh so I thought overall, for airline buy on board, it was decent enough value for money.

Unusually, for a low cost airline, Sky Express also offers a complimentary orange juice, water or coffee and Greek biscuit, to all passengers.  I thought that this was a nice touch given that few low cost airlines provide this in Europe.  Interestingly it's also better than the complimentary choices available from British Airways in their European economy product.

You cannot get hot food on Sky Express however, which compares unfavourably with even Ryanair.  Given that Sky Express' international sectors are long, I can't help but think they are missing a trick here.

My purchased meal, along with Sky Express complimentary biscuit and orange juice

Arrival

Arrival into London was on time with some great views of Windsor as we descended into Heathrow.  With a quick walk through Terminal 2's immigration, I was in my hotel within 50 minutes of landing.

Verdict

Despite being hit hard during the financial crisis just over a decade ago, you can't argue that Greece emerged with two fine airlines.  Aegean Airlines offers a truly remarkable European business class product, as I found here.

Back to today's flight though, and I was impressed with Sky Express in a different, low cost way.  

On face value, you could say that the guy who decided to come and take my blocked middle seat was a disappointment.  But it quelled a situation and ask any BA Club Europe passenger what happens when flights get consolidated during bad weather ('irrops' as it's known in the industry), and that blocked middle seat is the first thing to go.  This is the problem with all European business class products as the seats are basically economy.  Unlike in the US where domestic First is usually a wider, nicer and importantly, unchangeable seat.

Sky Express genuinely offers something different - it easily gives BA's economy product a run for its money on this popular route.  For less than €50, you would be getting a comfortable seat on a near four hour sector, with a modern airliner and complimentary drinks and a snack.  

Overall, highly recommended.

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