It’s not unusual to see aircraft divert due to inclement weather, causing passengers to arrive at their destination late. However, a recent Condor flight to Greece ended up landing at five airports over the course of 32 hours, only for the plane and passengers to end up exactly where they started.
In this post:
A dramatic day of Condor flying from Zurich to Heraklion
This incident happened on May 24, 2025, and involves Condor flight DE1234, which was operated by an Airbus A320 with the registration code D-AICA. The flight was scheduled to operate the routine 1,198-mile flight from Zurich (ZRH) to Heraklion (HER). The flight had 137 passengers and six crew members onboard, with many passengers no doubt looking forward to their vacation on the beautiful island of Crete, in Greece.
Things started smoothly enough. The flight was scheduled to depart at 6:20AM, and took off at 6:51AM. Within around two hours, the plane was on its descent to Heraklion. Unfortunately due to strong winds, the plane couldn’t immediately land. So it circled for an extended period of time, before the crew made the decision to divert to Athens (ATH) to refuel.
The plane touched down in Athens at 11:24AM local time (one hour ahead of Zurich), around 3.5 hours after it first took off. Okay, that’s obviously not hugely convenient, but safety is always the priority, and the plane just needed to get more fuel to complete its journey.
At 1:50PM, the jet once again took off for Heraklion. Unfortunately conditions still hadn’t improved, and despite circling for an extended period of time, the jet ultimately had to divert to nearby Kos (KGS), where it landed at 3:28PM, after a flight lasting a little over 1.5 hours.
It was then time to refuel again. However, this time, the decision was made to then fly to Thessaloniki (SKG). Why? Well, the crew didn’t have much time left before they’d time out, so the airline needed to find somewhere that passengers and crew could spend the night, and Thessaloniki fit that bill. So at 5:04PM the jet took off, and just under an hour later, at 6:01PM, it landed in Thessaloniki.
Passengers made it to a different airport in Greece than intended, around 11 hours after they first departed Zurich.
Wait until you hear what happened the next day…
At around 9AM the following morning, after roughly 15 hours of rest, the crew and passengers were ready to continue their journey. At 9:16AM the plane once again took off, with the plan to fly from Thessaloniki to Heraklion. The plane made its way south pretty quickly, but then entered a holding pattern.
Once again, the plane wasn’t able to land due to the weather, and the jet ended up diverting to Athens yet again, where it landed at 11:05AM, nearly two hours after it took off.
At this point, Condor just threw in the towel, and decided to fly back to Zurich. At 1:24PM, the jet took off from Athens, and operated the roughly 2.5 hour flight to Zurich, where it landed at 2:45PM.
That meant the plane, crew, and passengers, were all back in Zurich after a 32-hour tour of Greece, with five landings.
Of course safety is the priority, and airlines can only land at a destination if it’s practical. For its part, Condor states that “due to extreme weather conditions and strong winds, takeoffs and landings at Heraklion Airport were only possible to a limited extent.” Many passengers criticize the airline for how it handled this situation, though:
- Given the strong winds in Heraklion, many passengers were reportedly throwing up during the approaches
- During that entire long day on the plane, passengers were only offered a single cup of water, and not anything else to eat or drink
- Passengers had to pay for their own hotel in Thessaloniki, though are entitled to reimbursement, under European aviation rules
- On the second day in Athens, passengers were given the opportunity to disembark there rather than fly back to Zurich, but only if they were fine without their checked luggage
Obviously the logistics here are complicated, and this diversion was a pain for Condor as well. However, it sounds like this could’ve been handled differently…
Bottom line
A Condor Airbus A320 had a complicated (attempted) journey from Zurich to Heraklion. Strong winds on Crete ultimately prevented the plane from landing, which started a two-day series of diversions. Ultimately passengers ended up in Zurich 32 hours after they first departed, a full five landings later. Rough, eh?
What do you make of this Condor flight?
Flights to Madeira, also quite often have many weather diversions. I vaguely remember a Condor? Jet that diverted to PXO, due to bad weather at FNC. Then after a few hours, they re-tried to land at FNC. With 2 go-arounds. They then diverted to TFS, stayed overnight. Then tied again the next day to land at FNC, but to no avail, as the winds were 'out-of-limits'. They finally flew the plane to Faro; unloaded the...
Flights to Madeira, also quite often have many weather diversions. I vaguely remember a Condor? Jet that diverted to PXO, due to bad weather at FNC. Then after a few hours, they re-tried to land at FNC. With 2 go-arounds. They then diverted to TFS, stayed overnight. Then tied again the next day to land at FNC, but to no avail, as the winds were 'out-of-limits'. They finally flew the plane to Faro; unloaded the passengers; then flew the plane back to the origin airport. (Passengers leaving FNC had to endure an extra unplanned 4-5 days, stuck in FNC.)
Was in Crete that day. Thankfully got in on Condor from FRA in the early morning. I was on flight radar seeing tons of diversions, and it’s unfortunate for all.
I'm curious if other planes were landing that day. Seems odd that they even left ZRH given the conditions. Clearly other aircraft were getting in or they would not repeatedly try. Bad luck happens during slot but still, three times?
how many miles do the pax get here?
Out of curiosity: how did other airlines cope with the situation? Can somebody with a premium subscription check flightradar for 24may?
It gets even weirder. I have no idea what those condor guys were thinking. Planes were landing and taking off all morning/noon. Just watched the replay from 10AM to 12PM, and Ryanair planes landed a few minutes before the condor plane, and multiple planes landed while the Condor plane was circling over HER lol. All while planes took off like normal from the airport.
„During that entire long day on the plane, passengers were only offered a single cup of water, and not anything else to eat or drink“
Pretty poor what Condor Crew did. As a passenger, i would’ve just bought everything from „buy onboard“ and would’ve Condor reimburse it to me later…
Nothing you can buy if the FAs won't open the fridge at the back of the plane.
Maybe I'm just thinking outside the box here, but after failing for the 2nd time why not go back to Athens instead of Thessaloniki and just put the passengers on a ferry to Heraklion? Athens has a direct ferry connection, and as far as I can tell the last one leaves at 22:00. Plenty of time to move passengers and luggage to the port, especially since it was only 18:00 when they arrived at Thessaloniki....
Maybe I'm just thinking outside the box here, but after failing for the 2nd time why not go back to Athens instead of Thessaloniki and just put the passengers on a ferry to Heraklion? Athens has a direct ferry connection, and as far as I can tell the last one leaves at 22:00. Plenty of time to move passengers and luggage to the port, especially since it was only 18:00 when they arrived at Thessaloniki. I can't imagine the weather was also so terrible that the ferries weren't even running either.
There are two other airports in Crete, why didn't they try those?
And why would they make passengers abandon their checked luggage if they decided to stay in Greece instead of turning back??
Terrible handling of this.
How did the passengers finally end up in Heraklion?? I know Condor threw in the towel, but I'm sure the passengers did not give up on their plans for Heraklion
Condor is an incompetent airline that should have long been shut down. This story is nothing compared to the time where they landed in Greenland en route to Las Vegas and abandoned the basic needs of many, if not most or all, of the passengers. Basically said in so many words “deal with it”. They flew a different aircraft in many hours later with a different configuration, and their “customer service rep” who flew on...
Condor is an incompetent airline that should have long been shut down. This story is nothing compared to the time where they landed in Greenland en route to Las Vegas and abandoned the basic needs of many, if not most or all, of the passengers. Basically said in so many words “deal with it”. They flew a different aircraft in many hours later with a different configuration, and their “customer service rep” who flew on the flight gave the appearance that he was completely prepared to abandon passengers in Greenland that it had violated its EU rights and obligations for. Because no one wanted to be abandoned, everyone just agreed to be piled in like cattle and do what we could.
As best I know, no one at Condor was ever held civilly or criminally liable for what transpired.
This never made it into the news.
As it likely never happened - or can you share the details as I can only find their flight to FRA SEA diverted to KEF and Westjet to LHR YYZ diverted to Greenland several years ago.
@Icarus I do not perform free labor, voluntarily or otherwise, for those who make salacious false accusations without irrefutable proof as you have here. No idea why you started your response with an accusation instead of a question, but for me it speaks volumes about your personal character.
All you had to do is not start with an accusation, but in light of that, what I will tell you is that this flight absolutely happened,...
@Icarus I do not perform free labor, voluntarily or otherwise, for those who make salacious false accusations without irrefutable proof as you have here. No idea why you started your response with an accusation instead of a question, but for me it speaks volumes about your personal character.
All you had to do is not start with an accusation, but in light of that, what I will tell you is that this flight absolutely happened, and your research appears to be insufficient.
All in all, this is an opinion section, where for example my viewpoint on Condor’s performance and actions is shared as an opinion, and you are entitled to have your viewpoints and opinions as well.
https://avherald.com/h?article=4abedcbe
Feel free to have this playing in the background while reading it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK6TXMsvgQg
Thank you Petros for reminding me of the days before the woke generation killed comedy.
Seemingly Condor know how to ‘entertain’ their passengers by giving them the runaround!
While watching the landing in the wind video at 3X speed