Corfu-Paxos Hydrofoil Timetable 2012 (Flying Dolphins)- and other Ferryboat Issues.

I was pleased to find this Corfu-Paxos hydrofoil 2012 timetable online.

See 2013 Timetable here

Thanks to "Paxos News".

It would seem, from an article in the April 2012 issue of the local Paxiot (Greek) newspaper "The Voice of Paxos", that the main concern of Paxiots, especially in the winter months, is to maintain a reliable means of transport between Paxos and the mainland (Igoumenitsa). Now that the Egnatia Highway has made the journey from Igoumenitsa to Ioannina so fast and convenient, the primary concern of the resident islanders is for a regular "closed-type" ferry boat connection between the island and Igoumenitsa, needed for the transportation of cars and lorries. The requirement for a reliable and fast means of transfer of patients to the Ioannina hospitals, and for the importation of building materials and other supplies from Epirus and Athens is understandable.

The Paxiots are not keen that the ferry boats ("closed" or "open") should stop at Lefkimi in the south of Corfu, because it delays them and can put them at risk of being stranded there because of bad weather and rough conditions in the channel. They are against the "pantofles" (open ferries), which are more at the mercy of the weather, and against the ferry itinerary Igoumenitsa-Lefkimi-Paxos. They want a direct, fast, ferry route, Paxos-Igoumenitsa. It serves their economic and personal interests better.

The excellent Egnatia Highway means that far more people are visiting Paxos, with their cars, from mainland Greece, rather than from Corfu.

I hope this doesn't mean that the little island will become clogged up with cars and lorries. Reliable and regular sea-links with Corfu, with or without capacity for the transport of motor vehicles, is equally essential, summer and winter.