Civil Aviation Authority Expects 50 Million Passengers in Greek Airports This Year

Some 50 million passengers are expected to pass through Greek airports this year, according to data released by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA).

Referring to last year’s figure of 45 million passengers, HCAA Chief Dimitris Koukis said this week that he expects passenger traffic to increase by 10 percent.

“We estimate that without any unexpected developments the total number of passengers to go through Greek airports in 2015 will most likely exceed 50 million,” Mr Koukis said.

In April, airports in Athens, Thessaloniki and Hania handled the most flights. Athens International Airport (AIA) handled 63 percent of the country’s incoming travellers.

In April 2015, the number of international flights to AIA, jumped to 7,877 compared to 6,275 in the same month last year with 945,907 passengers in April 2015 against 769,462 in April 2014.

HCAA figures reveal that the total number of flights to Greek airports in the first quarter of 2015 came to 28,859 (15,271 of which were domestic and 13,588 international), up by 10.3 percent (an 8.9 percent rise in domestic flights and a 12 percent increase in international flights) over the same month of 2014.

Domestic flights were once again stronger this month with charter flights marking the beginning of summer at 22 – compared to 11 in March 2015 – of the country’s airports.

The total number of passengers in the first quarter of 2015, meanwhile, came to 2,798,434 (1,161,513 from Greece and 1,636,921 from abroad) indicating a 15.3 percent increase over the same month in 2014.