Family Cruise Holiday around the Greek Islands      Dave Anderson Dave Rose

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Dave Rose and I took our families on holiday this year a cruise ship around the Greek Islands, this was a family holiday not a spotting trip, though in between all the activities we managed to log & photograph some nice bits, the Ocean Village starts off in Heraklion, Crete, heading off to Dubrovnik, a few Dubrovnik MD80's were seen heading into the airport not much else. Next stop was Corfu, we took the ladies to mouse Island a scenic spot on the Island, (it's about 1/2 mile from the end of the runway) and the famous cafe that looks over the holding point, we stayed a few hours but it was very quiet. Cephalonia, Katakolon and Athens (we sailed past the old airport on the way out, a few stored aircraft can still be seen) were all  visited but no aircraft to see. The ship then returned to Crete, and the harbour is about a mile away from the airport, aircraft can be seen on the apron and read off when taking off, we found a beach on the landing side and spent the afternoon there, regular busy spells but it can go quiet for long periods. After a day sailing our next spot was Limassol on Cyprus, RAF Akrotiri airfield can be seen, it was a Saturday and no aircraft were seen at all. Rhodes was the next point most of the day was spent at the water park, but some aircraft were read off as we waited to sail in the evening. Kusadasi in Turkey, Mykonos and Santorini were all visited with little or nothing to see and then back to Crete. G-BYAW was our aircraft to and from Newcastle.

The Mil Helicopter looks to be based here, probably on fire fighting duties, there are no spotting facilities at the airport until airside, a nice beach to the east gives views of the holding point where departing aircraft can easily be read off and landing aircraft photographed ok.

We were there on a Sunday, it was very very quiet, spotters use a cafe which over looks the holding point of runway 35, excellent for photo's as long as they are using that runway, the apron area can be seen but nothing can be read off until it moves.

Similar to the previous weeks, there were also a number of UK charter airlines amongst the visitors, the airport has two HAS sites though nothing used them during our three visits.

The approach was over the ship, however a number of aircraft turned short and couldn't be read off, other visiting aircraft not read off were Livingston A321's, ELAL 757, Arkia B757, and a Russian Federation TU154M.

The airport can be seen from various points around the Island, only a small apron one or two aircraft at a time, and what seems the normal a couple of HAS's.

That's it for now