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.
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?
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