Flying Airbus A320neo with Aegean Airlines from Brussels to Athens return

July 2024. Steve and I are cruising on the Norwegian Getaway, a Breakaway class ship by Norwegian Cruise Line or NCL. Interestingly, our stay on board happened shortly after the Getaway paid a visit to the dry dock for some refurbishments. The route? Piraeus, which is the port of Athens in Greece; followed by Mykonos; two days in Istanbul in Turkey or Türkiye; then Kusadasi or Kuşadası for Ephesus; Rhodes; Santorini (Thira or Thera) and back to Piraeus. Oddly enough, the itinerary offered no sea days.

I wasn’t planning to blog on my Aegean Airlines (A3) flights, as I flew economy with the Greek carrier in August 2023. Both linking Brussels Airport (BRU) in Belgium to Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos (ATH). Surely, the flights in July 2024 would be similar.

But our airplane was an Airbus A320neo so yes, I’m posting a review. Unfortunately as I’m writing this it’s too late to look up which exact aircraft, its delay or not etc. So I’m skipping the technical sheet.

The A320neo

The Airbus A320 family is the work horse for many airlines. The Neo offers a fresh start. “The Airbus A320neo family is an incremental development of the A320 family of narrow-body airliners produced by Airbus. The A320neo family (neo being Greek for ‘new‘, as well as an acronym for ‘new engine option‘) is based on the enhanced variant of the previous generation A319, A320, and A321, which was then retrospectively renamed the A320ceo family (ceo acronym for ‘current engine option’)”, Wikipedia says. I just thought ‘neo’ stood for new.

Re-engined with CFM International LEAP or Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines and fitted with sharklets wingtip devices as standard, the A320neo is 15% to 20% more fuel efficient than prior models, the A320ceo.

It was launched on 1 December 2010, made its first flight on 25 September 2014 and was introduced by Lufthansa on 25 January 2016.

By 2019, the A320neo had a 60% market share against the competing Boeing 737 MAX. As of June 2024, a total of 10,546 A320neo family aircraft had been ordered by more than 130 customers, of which 3,424 aircraft had been delivered. The global A320neo fleet had completed more than 7.35 million flights over 14.67 million block hours with one hull loss being an airport-safety related accident.

Brussels to Athens

Aegean Airlines was runner-up at the Skytrax World Airline Awards in the category World’s Best Regional Airlines 2024 and thus can boast the title of Best Regional Airline in Europe.

It’s easy to see why. A3 offers complimentary meals on a 3-hour flight, and in 2023 we received a drink on the short hop to Mykonos. Who else does that?

Our A3621 (or A3 621) flight was fully booked. Steve and I had planned our flights seperately so we did not sit together. Steve had to move around to accommodate a family. I sat in a dreaded B-seat. in an ABC-DEF 3-3 configuration, sitting in the middle is not fun. I fall asleep while flying and my head and shoulders usually lean to the left when I do. So now I had to sit and keep straight. A huge task for someone who has ben out for decades.

The business class rows were swiftly catered to, and the hoi polloi (οἱ πολλοί) had to wait for over an hour to get food and drinks. Oddly, the crew had to assemble the meal trey themselves. That looked impractical. The meal was okay. I was fed. A second round of drinks would have been nice.

Anyway, it was an uneventful flight.

The seat

But of course, as the A320neo was new(ish) to me, I was mostly interested in the seat.

The seat is firm and legroom is sparse, as you’d expect on a narrow-bodied airplane made for short haul. Is three hours short haul? It’s leaning into medium haul at least.

The foldable tablet is sturdy enough. The seat has an USB A outlet and a nifty holder for an smartphone or tablet to be installed as your in-flight entertainment.

Of course this is not the prerogative of the A320neo and it’s up the airline to dicide which seats it wants.

Athens to Brussels

The return flight was a carbon copy of the first journey. Service an hour into the flight, same seats. Again I sat in the middle on seat 14E. I wore short on this flight and my bare knee touched the seat in front all the time. Which was painful at times and left marks on my skin.