Air Canada has resumed its non-stop flights from Canada to Athens Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, making it the first North American airline to resume service to the Greek capital.
The airline will offer twice weekly service from Montreal and Toronto, both cities with large populations of Greek Canadians who are anxious and eager to visit family in Greece.
“We’ve been waiting months for this news, first not even knowing if we’d be allowed into the country and second, if we were, how we’d even get there,” said Marian Papathanassiou, a reader of The Pappas Post from Montreal.
The inaugural post-COVID-19 lockdown flight was greeted in Athens by Canada’s Ambassador to Athens, Mark Allen, who was at Eleftherios Venizelos airport to greet the crew and passengers.
He tweeted “A big day! Pleased to welcome the first direct flight of 2020 from Canada to Greece. Thanks to @ATH_airport and @AirCanada. Now passengers making essential trips between our two countries do not have to transit through others.”
The airline’s resumption of non-stop service came after Canada was on the list of approved nations whose citizens were permitted to enter the European Union, following months of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fate of other North American carriers, including Delta and American Airlines— both of which have scheduled flights from New York and Chicago respectively beginning in mid July, remains unknown as schedules are adjusted on a regular basis by the airlines. The United States is on the EU’s restricted countries list due to the large numbers of daily infections.
Emirates, which operates a daily non-stop flight from Newark to Athens has also said it will resume service in mid-July although no official announcement has come from the airline.
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