Transport
Pigadia is 17 km away, about 25 minutes and €25 by taxi; Amoopi and Arkasa are closer, about €20. Olympos in the north is two hours and about €90. There is no airport bus.
Read more: TransportGuide to Karpathos Airport
Karpathos Airport (AOK) is on the flat southern tip of the island, 17 km from Pigadia, the port and capital, with the sea on three sides and the wind on all four. Its runway, one of the longest in the Aegean islands, takes summer charters and low-cost flights from Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and Austria, while Olympic and Sky Express fly to Rhodes, Athens and neighbouring Kasos all year.
The terminal was enlarged in the 2010s and is small and easy. Karpathos is a long, mountainous island: the south around the airport is beaches and resorts, the north around Olympos is a two-hour drive of hairpins, and the meltemi wind that fills the windsurfing bays also delays the occasional landing.
Parking
A car park in front of the terminal, from about €2 an hour or €8 a day. Islanders flying to Rhodes and Athens are its main customers; it fills only on the peak August days.
Read more: ParkingCar rental
Local rental firms meet the flights with desks at the terminal. Karpathos is long, mountainous and thinly served by bus, and its best beaches are at the end of dirt tracks, so a car, and for Apella or Kyra Panagia a car with clearance, is the way to see it.
Read more: Car rentalLocal tips
- Arrange your onward transport before you land: there is no bus, the taxi rank empties when two charters land together, and hotels are happy to send a car.
- The meltemi is part of the deal in July and August. Turboprop flights from Rhodes are occasionally held on the windiest days; check the live board and keep the ferry to Rhodes in mind as the fallback.
- Olympos is two hours each way. Do not plan it as an afternoon from the airport; give it a night, or take the summer boat from Pigadia to Diafani and the bus up.
- Two hours before an international flight is enough; the hall is small, the café is one, and the queue is the length of one aircraft.
See also
Prices and timetables are indicative and change seasonally. Confirm before you travel.