Aegean: Passenger Traffic Up 5% in First Quarter

Aegean Airlines and its subsidiary Olympic Air transported a total of 2.1 million passengers in the first quarter of 2017, recording an increase of five percent, an announcement on Wednesday said.

According to the Greek carrier, the growth is attributed entirely to its international network with the addition and strengthening of destinations, as passenger numbers on flights abroad grew by 17 percent to 1.1 million passengers. On the other hand, domestic traffic dropped by six percent to less than 1 million passengers due to weaker demand.

Load factors improved significantly both in domestic and international routes by eight percentage points reaching 77 percent, a record high level for a winter season, the airline noted.

“Local demand remains weak and combined with the seasonality of Greek tourism result to the underuse of our fleet which will continue to negatively impact our financial results for the winter months,” Dimitris Gerogiannis, managing director of Aegean, said.

“The evolution of load factors as well as pre-bookings for the summer season, which basically shape our financial performance, remains encouraging for the full year,” he added.