Rhodes-Athens by Ryanair???

UPDATE 25/5/2012

Since Ryanair's website refurbishment, the Rhodes-Athens route pair vanished from the booking engine so maybe afterall it was a candy for local officials to sign the then negotiated deal.

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Below you can see a capture from Ryanair's inner booking engine in which Athens is clearly listed as a destination offered from Rhodes although flights are not yet available for bookings.

So, how possible is a domestic route flown from Ryanair?

Well, it seems rather difficult as firstly they avoid expensive airports such as Athens and secondly they do not operate a base at Rhodes. Moreover, they were in dispute with local officials regarding the amount of subsidy they asked for flying to Rhodes and Kos.

On the other hand, Athens airport fees might be expensive but Rhodes is the 3rd most popular domestic destination with strong year round traffic. The lack of a domestic base could be overcome by flying here from nearby countries (for example Italy) so as crew working hours are not violated or even basing crews here.

There could also be three more possibilities for the appearance of the route on their booking engine; first is that they may operate charter flights for the upcoming national elections moving voters to their voting region, second that they may have reach to a yet undisclosed agreement with local officials and finally there's always the possibility of a mistake on their website.

As we try to verify the subject we will also keep an eye and let you know of any developments.