Hey, you have to give Eurowings credit for getting passengers to their destination, even if the mode of transport wasn’t what was expected…
Santorini-bound Eurowings flight diverts to Heraklion
aeroTELEGRAPH reports on an interesting situation that happened on Sunday, August 31, 2025, on Eurowings flight EW9662, scheduled to operate from Dusseldorf (DUS) to Santorini (JTR). The 1,381-mile flight from Lufthansa Group’s low cost regional subsidiary was operated by an Airbus A319 with the registration code D-AGWM, and was supposed to depart at 6:55AM and arrive at 11:05AM.
The flight was mostly routine, until it came time for the approach to Santorini. The plane descended as usual, and got to an altitude as low as roughly 500 feet. However, the crosswinds exceeded the permissible limits for the plane, so a landing wasn’t possible. With no signs of conditions improving, the decision was made to divert to Heraklion (HER), on the island of Crete.
So the plane made that 75-mile journey, and it landed there at 11:30AM, after a total flight time of 3hr5min. The plan was initially to refuel and then continue the journey to Santorini. However, when the weather showed no signs of improvement, the airline got creative.
Passengers were disembarked, and were then rebooked on a ferry for this portion of the journey, so that they’d make it to their destination. The A319 then flew back to Dusseldorf empty (with just the crew), and it landed there at 5:53PM.
This seems like a great way to handle this situation
Airline operations can be incredibly complex at times:
- There’s only so much that can be done to predict weather, especially when we’re talking about winds on Greek islands, plus aircraft operational limits
- There are limits to how many hours airline crews are allowed to work in a day, so when there’s a diversion, often decisions need to be made quickly, to have the best outcome for the most people
With that in mind, I think Eurowings handled this situation spectacularly well, all things considered. Flying to Santorini wasn’t an option, so the airline got creative and got everyone to their destination on a ferry, even if it was several hours late.
You might think “well of course, what else would they have done?” In many situations, airlines will essentially force passengers to stay on the plane, and will sometimes even return everyone to their origin, and regroup there. For example, Condor dealt with a similar situation earlier in the summer, but handled it very differently. It ultimately resulted in a 32-hour journey to nowhere, with a total of five landings.
So I think the way that Eurowings handled this is most definitely preferable, in terms of getting as many people to their destination as possible, while minimizing a plane being out of sequence, crew timing out, etc.
Bottom line
A Eurowings flight from Dusseldorf to Santorini didn’t go as planned, as strong crosswinds in Santorini exceeded the plane’s operational limits. At that point the decision was made to divert to Heraklion, the closest airport where a landing was possible.
With conditions not improving, the decision was made to send passengers to Santorini on a ferry, and then fly the plane back to Dusseldorf empty. As unconventional as it may be, that’s about the best outcome anyone could hope for, and it’s rare to see airlines get this creative.
What do you make of this Eurowings diversion?
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