The end of a slower-than-usual fall season in Kalymnos brings news of yet another agreement between Kos and Ryanair as well as a bolting event initiated by a German climber to take place in 2013. Jürgen Rohrmann of Sachsenheim, Germany, is inviting experienced route equippers who’ve put up routes in Kalymnos over the last years to participate. His company will provide bolts for new routes and arrange for discounted accommodation, food and scooters; equippers will have to bring their drills and pay for their airfare. We have suggested that each equipper rebolt some of their previous routes (where bolts may be corroded, old, or otherwise in urgent need of replacement) and Climb Kalymnos will provide the bolts for rebolting. The event is scheduled to take place from October 26th – November 9th 2013.
For next year it seems that Ryanair will be flying to Kos from March 31st – October 31st. This year flights to Kos stopped at the beginning of October, at the height of climbing season, which is probably one of the main reasons for the obvious drop in the number of climbers. Before the agreement between Ryanair and Kos fell through, 120 flights (15.000 passengers) were scheduled for October 2012. The cancellation of these flights translated into an 18% drop in visitors to Kos. Most foreign climbers coming to Kalymnos travel via Kos, so Kalymnos was severely impacted as well, and this year October was much slower despite the added exposure from the North Face Kalymnos Climbing Festival. November was even slower, with very few climbers, but like last year conditions were perfect.
According to the latest local news, a new agreement has just been reached with the budget airline for the next two years and Ryanair will fly to Kos from March 31st – October 31st in 2013, the goal being to extend this by two months in 2014 and ultimately to year-round flights. The European airports connected to Kos are Bari, Bologna, Brussels Charleroi, Frankfurt Hahn, Kaunas, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool, London Stansted, Milan Bergamo, Oslo Rygge, and Pisa.
8 Comments
answer to Chris: … If you boycott RyanAir, presumably they will stop the flights again – is that what you want?
you take a national company such as Air france until Athènes (about 250€ A/R) and after Agean or Olympic air for Kos … not so cheap but if you don’t want to spend money … you stay at home :-) … we are privileged tourists not homeless !
“Not that bad”? Can you tell me please Winthorp Fitzerald where does your impression come from?
I guess you are not to be counted in the number of suicides… That number has doubled in certain areas in the last three years, and the fact that they decided to killed themselves does not mean that there is no murderer.
It is possible to know the names of the ones who killed themselves in Greece, as well as elsewhere. A lot of Kalymnians told me about friends and families leaving the island and heading somewhere – many of them to Australia, if I can remember.
Kos citizens describe this situation as “a black hole which seems to be getting larger and an endless struggle to come out of”…
Meanwhile, at the IMF they’re happily celebrating Christmas and I think that also Mr. lobbyist Daniel Seth Loeb should be quite happy because of his bets on Greece (“We often make money in situations where our assumptions are not rosy”, he cynically says).
While this happens, far-right Golden Dawn movement is said to be presently riding high in the polls as the third-largest electoral force in Greece. They are able to infiltrate the security forces and commit violent acts against immigrants or anti-fascists.
I don’t think you can prove this is “smoke without fire”, but I’m waiting to see if you can.
And I cannot give you the link, but you can easily find proof of the existence of proud Golden Dawn supporters in Kos with a very quick search on the internet.
I think that some people are fiercely opposing what they consider – right or wrong – a huge injustice, but some forms of patriotic nationalism are a threat.
What you are calling ““information war” from the media” certainly exists, but it is engineered to make you think that any crisis is deserved by that population, while things are a little bit more complex.
Anyway, I did not want my contribution to be totally off topic: I’m not an internet troll, I’m a climber. And just because I would like to come back to Kalymnos in 2013, because I love it, I am anxious and worried.
This discussion started from some critical comments (that I personally approve) about Ryanair. Well, the question that Chris Craggs makes (“is that what you want” when boycotting Ryanair: “stop the flights again”?) has difficult answer just because it depends on the blackmail with the greeks that Pascal talks about. This dirty play is based on promotions and concessions betweeen the governments and Ryanair. Just go find on Google these two articles titled: “Kos Residents Launch Petition as Ryanair Halts Flights to Kos & Rhodes” (from Keep Talking Greece site) and “It’s not over till it’s over…please Ryanair…” (from Kos-Explorer)!
I want to climb on Kalymnos but I don’t want to participate in a blackmail system!
The situation is not really *that* bad. I’ve been in Greece for a while now and then and my impression is that 80% of this is “information war” from the media. An information war that also targets Germany (as if it’s german’s fault), Portugal, Spain, Italy and generally all of europe and the euro.
Quite frankly, people are not buying this anymore and this information/media war is starting to backfire as more and more people start to realize that media is smoke without fire…
Sadly, things are getting worse in Greece.
What do we need to save? Our deserved holidays at Ryanair prices or the future of a nation threatened by a civil war? Climbing in Kalymnos or nazi fighting?
It has been proved that there are proud Golden Dawn supporters in Kos.
The Nationalists also talk on their websites about offices of Golden Dawn that have been opened in the center of Rhodes, and they say that Kalymnian people are searching for the Golden Dawn too.
So I see things are more complicated. It is not just a problem of out-of-law companies: it is a matter of an out-of-law future for Greece.
I want to climb. I want to help Greeks and Kalymnian people. But I do not want to help Golden Dawn nazi thugs, nationalists and racists.
Doesn’t our behaviour have to do with the future of greek crisis?
I am not aware of any Greek companies that fly from the UK to Kos. If you boycott RyanAir, presumably they will stop the flights again – is that what you want?
I do agree with Bruno. Ryanair win their blackmail with the greeks…
Dont support this out-of-law company, travel with the greek companies!
Ryanair do not comply with labor laws, to pay a cheaper ticket you guarantee in this scandalous system … must boycott Ryanair !
Good. But what a pity that the flights don’t start before the Easter holidays of 2013, by March 22nd.