April 2015: Two Greek Airports Record Highest Increases in Passenger Traffic in Europe

Athens International Airport and Santorini Airport were among Europe’s best performers in April 2015, according to a traffic report released last week by European airport trade body, ACI Europe.

The ACI Europe Airport Traffic report, which includes full service, low cost and charter flights, revealed that the two Greek airports topped two of the four European airport groups based on their passenger traffic in April. The April data included 206 airports representing more than 88 percent of European air passenger traffic.

During the month of April, airports welcoming more than 25 million passengers per year (Group 1), airports welcoming between 10 and 25 million passengers (Group 2), airports welcoming between 5 and 10 million passengers (Group 3) and airports welcoming less than 5 million passengers per year (Group 4) reported an average adjustment +1.9 percent, +3.8 percent, +4.9 percent and +4.6 percent.

Athens Airport reported the highest rise (+21.2 percent) in Group 2, ahead of Istanbul SAW (+14.6 percent), London STN (+10.7 percent), Dublin (+10.5 percent) and Lisbon (+10.3 percent).

Santorini (Thira) National Airport

In Group 4, Santorini Airport recorded a 62,9 percent rise, ahead of Chisinau (+34.8 percent), Cluj (+33.5 percent), Sibiu (+29.7 percent) and Ponta Delgada (+28.2 percent).

According to the traffic report, passenger traffic in the EU grew by a healthy 3.9 percent. Meanwhile, non-EU airports posted a lower rate of passenger traffic growth (1.0 percent), confirming a trend of nearly 6 months during which EU airports have outperformed non-EU ones.

“The outlook remains positive, with economic growth picking up in the Eurozone and the positive impact of the ECB’s stimulus programme becoming more apparent”, Olivier Jankovec, Director General of ACI Europe said.

“Airlines have added more capacity for this summer season compared to last year and barring a dramatic twist in debt negotiations with Greece, the coming months should see continued passenger growth — and hopefully some improvement in freight figures.”