Summer 2026, you can’t afford a bag of groceries without wincing, Rosie O'Donnell’s cracking middling jokes about “Mango Mussolini” and Aer Lingus and yes, we still avoid traveling to Europe or anywhere on American Airlines at all costs. Book a ticket on AA if you must — but flying into or out of the country’s worst airport, DFW, is a form of abuse that has no known name.
So that’s out of the way.
Although the paradigm has shifted — travel in Greece isn’t just for summer anymore — many airlines have been playing catch up, with Athens still among the most underserved major European capital in terms of year-round nonstop flights from major American cities. While there may be some good reasons it is still easier to get from Beverly Hills to Rome, Tel Aviv, or Istanbul than to Athens, we know California pretty well and frankly can’t think of any.
So when it comes to ranking the best airlines for travel to Greece this summer or fall for that matter, there are two major factors: quality of service as well as frequency of service. Based on this essential pairing, the winner is…well, wait a second. Do we count only nonstops? No. That said, last year’s winner, Emirates, doesn’t appear on our 2026 list at all. Yes, the Dubai-based airline’s “fifth-freedom” flights connect Newark to Athens daily. Fancy business class and all that jazz. But, Newark. And now, um, Dubai. We’ve had our fair share of missile alerts in the Middle East.
So let’s get to it:
Delta. No, not because of Delta One. Other airlines do business class better—sometimes way better. Delta tops our list because you can fly nonstop from New York JFK, Atlanta and Boston to Athens. Often on the A330-900neo, a newer plane. Just feels fresh, even in economy.
Virgin Atlantic. If you have to make a stopover en route to Athens, it may as well be London. Frankfurt is a nightmare, Charles de Gaulle is the recognized capital of labor strikes, and we find Rome to be problematic. One of the things we like about Virgin is that the airline uses T3 at Heathrow, which is lot closer to your connecting flight on Aegean (separate ticket) at T2 than from the monstrous T5, which is used by British Airways.
British Airways. Why? Because you can book a through ticket to Athens from almost anywhere in the continental United States, as long as your airport of departure has a flight that codeshares with BA. That takes the stress out of missing connecting flights and reduces transfer times at Heathrow. True, you’ll generally have a better on board experience flying Aegean from London to Athens rather than BA. But again, having multiple stops on the same booking does have logistical advantages.
ITA Airways. True, Rome has become a very unpleasant place to connect. Rome Fiumicino “Leonardo da Vinci” Airport is always overcrowded and it is staffed by some of the rudest people we have encountered on the European continent. And that’s saying something. No fresh air, mosquitos everywhere, and—get this—really bad pizza. But ITA is a good airline, and Italy is close to Greece. So it’s thumbs up.
United. Thanks to United’s nonstop from Athens to Dulles, you can fly from the West Coast to Greece with just a single stop in Washington.
Note that according to Athens International Airport there are 9 U.S. nonstop destinations in 2026. No nonstops from the Golden State yet.
