Greece 10-month Air Arrivals Mark Historic High

Air traffic to Greece is stronger than ever with an additional 680,000 passengers going through Greek airports in the January-October period and a 9.6 percent increase in the number of flights, compared to the whole year in 2017, Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) said this week.

Athens International Airport (AIA)

More specifically, Greek airports handled 58.7 million travelers – up by 5,290,686 – in the 10-month period to October 2018, marking a 9.9 percent increase compared to the same period in 2017 with 53.4 million – a historic high, according to the HCAA.

The total number of flights through Greek airports came to 483,341 – broken down to: 179,007 domestic and 304,334 international – posting a 9.6 percent rise against the corresponding period a year ago at 441,182 flights.

In October, total airport traffic rose by 8.8 percent to 5.65 million passengers, while the number of flights rising by 13.1 percent to 47,650 compared with 2017 and 42,113 flights in the given period. Incoming traffic, meanwhile, grew by 7.5 percent to 1,774,336 against 2017 figure of 1,650,203 arrivals.

© GTP

The country’s busiest airports in October were those in Athens (2.198.775), Heraklion (845.294), Thessaloniki (585.937), Rhodes (535.210), and Kos (274.538).

Over the 10-month period, the airports of Sitia on Crete, Milos and Naxos marked the highest percentage growth.

Sitia Airport handled 59,446 passengers, up by 103.8 percent against 29,163 in 2017. Milos Airport posted a 62.1 percent increase, serving 71,371 travelers compared to 44,028 last year. While the airport on Naxos recorded a 56.3 percent rise, with 81,011 visitors versus 51,830  a year ago.