Lounge Review: Goldair Handling Lounge (Schengen Area), Athens Airport (ATH), Greece (3 August 2024)

Entry requirements

I could access this lounge through PriorityPass, but also as an Aegean Miles+Bonus Gold member traveling on an Aegean flight on the day.

Background: Since 2023, Aegean’s own Schengen-zone lounge can get crowded at times. Aegean have publicly apologized while they’re looking to expand it and until then they are asking passengers traveling with a free guest to use this Goldair lounge here (travelers can still enter the Aegean lounge if they prefer, when traveling alone / without a free guest).

Seating area and other features

The lounge is quite spacious and feels “airy”. It’s nowhere near Aegean’s own lounge in terms of styling/class, this one here having a rather simple/generic lounge appearance; but at least all furniture and public spaces were in good shape, with no signs of tear and wear.

Various types of seating are offered, for eating, resting and working (including a large glass table with power outlets for working with your laptop).

The lounge has its own WiFi network –I received the connection details on a small paper card upon entry.

There are restrooms inside the lounge but no showers.

All Schengen-area lounges in ATH airport (Aegean, Lufthansa, SkyServ, Goldair), are next to each other on the side of the terminal facing the entrance, so there is no useful view of the apron for aviation geeks (aircraft do take off and land on that side too, but still most of the view is the rental car parking spaces).

Staff at the entrance were kind and professional, and there was more staff throughout the lounge keeping it clean.

Food and beverage

Food: Time of visit was 8:30-9:00am, so lounge was in breakfast schedule. Savoury food options included a soup, vegetable omelette rolls, Greek spinach and cheese pies, plus some sandwiches and brioches. Granola/cereals, fresh milk, yogurt, fresh fruit (bananas and apples), various nuts, cakes and cookies were also available.

Coffee/tea: Espresso-based coffee came out of two large Nespresso machines, with three different capsules to choose from (espresso forte, lungo and one with hazelnut flavor). There was also filter coffee and some tea bags.

Beverages: Branded sodas from Coca-Cola and the local Lux brand, still and sparkling water, and two types of bottled juice (orange and apple).

Wines: The selection included almost a dozen Greek wines. All of them were entry-level/everyday bottles, but they could still offer an enjoyable introduction to Greek grape varieties and winemaking.

Spirits: Greek offerings included tsipouro, Skinos masticha liquor, and Metaxa brandy. A couple of basic international brands of the usual spirits were also available (Haig and Dewar’s whisky, Absolut and Smirnoff vodka, Tanqueray and Gordon’s gin, Havana Club rum, and Campari).

Overall, the offerings were nothing remarkable but were not bad either.

Summary

A basic but solid lounge: Well kept, with ample space, no crowds (even on a busy summer morning), and decent food and drinks offerings, that is good enough for its purpose (taking a short flight to Europe or a short layover before flying to a Greek island).