Grecian Yearn - Reflections on Expat Life in Greece

01Feb2025 - My first full month in Greece

In November 2024 I moved to Greece to assume the role of Chief Commercial Officer with a brand new airport being built in Heraklion, Crete. The airport is scheduled to open in February 2027 and will replace the current overcrowded and obsolete airport adjacent to Heraklion. I was back in the States during December 2024 and returned to Greece to fully settle-in on Jan 1, 2025. I've decided that I'd like to keep a monthly blog of my reflections as an expat American living in Greece. I'm here on a 5-year contract, and assuming that I enjoy my lifestyle here, I may well choose to remain longer than that.

Settling-in

Arrangements had been made for me to occupy a fully-furnished apartment on an initial 3-month lease in Athens. The property is a convenient 10-15 min walk to the office, located close the metro line that goes out to the airport in 35-40 min. I purposely wanted to keep things easy and practical during my initial stay. The first weekend in January I signed up for a 6-month gym membership at Holmes Place near Syntagma Square (very central) as they offer convenient daily aquafit aerobics classes and I desired to establish a regular routine to aid in adjusting to my new life in Greece. I've had fun reconnecting with a few Greek friends whom I've known over the years now that I'm local in Athens. Great to refortify those friendships and provides a healthy balance outside of work.

Worklife

First of all, I must say that my team of six direct reports is fantastic. The other colleagues in the company have been amazing as well. They've been very warm and welcoming from day 1 on the job. They appreciate and respect the perspective, experience and exptertise that I bring to the table, and likewise I greatly value their experience given the broadened scope of my job responsibilities compared with previous positions. In my role as Chief Commercial Officer or Chief Business Development Officer, I am responsible for managing the following functions: route and market air service development, marketing/branding, aeronautical revenue generation and non-aeronautical revenue generation. In practical terms, that means that I'm responsible for expanding air service at the new airport in existing/new markets with incumbent/prospective airlines, overseeing branding (revamp and rollout), stakeholder engagement, establishing aeronautical charges (cost per passenger that airlines will pay to use our new airport), establishing non-aeronautical policy and charges (creating/coordinating the RFP process for concessionaires including Food & Beverage, retail shops, duty free, ground handling, fuel farm, onsite commercial development (FBO/MRO/general aviation) and ground transportation hub. It's a broad set of responsibilities and I will surely rely on the strengths/experience of my team members as I come up to speed on best practices/policies for us to implement at the new airport. Ours is the only greenfield airport site currently under construction in Europe, so it is naturally receiving a lot of attention, both withiun Greece as well as Europe-wide. It's an exciting, amazing project and I am thrilled and humbleed to have been appointed to lead the commercial development effort at the new facility. While the transition to living in Athens has been a relatively smooth one, it is not yet defined how long I will be working out of our Athens office before relocating to Crete. My team has been based in Athens for the past couple of years. My best guess at this point is that I will spend several months working in Athens before commencing island life.

Personal Life

As mentioned above, I don't know how long my stay in Athens will last, so life is somewhat tentative here until there's a clear directive. My personal goods will be delivered to Crete in late February following a transatlantic cargo ship crossing, so I look forward to having access to them so that I can swap out some clothes, shoes, etc. to complement what I currently have. I quickly found that I miss Schatzie desperately, and am taking steps to fly back to LA in late March to pick her up and move her to Greece to be with me. Thankfully no quarrantine is needed, so that should be a relatively smooth process. A few friends have expressed a desire to come visit me in Athens in March/April, so I'm glad I have this furnished 2-bedroom apartment so I can easily accommodate guests. The winter weather here in Athens has been amazingly mild. A few rainy days, but overall relatively similar to SoCal (slightly cooler), but far warmer than a majority of continental Europe. Weather in Crete is even more mild as moderated by the surrounding Mediterranean Sea. The food in Greece is incredible. Am easily adjusting the the healthy Mediterranean diet and between that, walking to work and aquafit aerobics, am continuing to lose weight at a slow and steady rate (best method). I'm also pleased that I signed up with NordVPN for rotating VPN service so that I can watch some favorite TV shows/movies and SiriusXM satellite radio. My progress in learning Greek continues through daily Duolingo lessons.

Overall, I'm thrilled with my new life in Greece and feel very fortunate to have been granted this opportunity at this point in my life. I'll continue to add monthly updates to Grecian Yearn as I enjoy all things Hellenic!