Fraport Reports Major Drop in Passenger Traffic at its Airports in Greece

Greece’s 14 regional airports, operated and managed by Fraport Greece, saw passenger traffic drop by 74.5 percent in the first eight months of the year.

Due to the impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic on air travel, passengers at the 14 Greek airports amounted to only 5.53 million during the January-August period, compared to 21.73 million in the corresponding period in 2019.

According to data by Fraport Greece, the airports it manages saw their passenger traffic nosedive during the first eight months of the year: Skiathos (-84 percent), Aktion (-80.3 percent), Kefalonia (-80.1 percent), Rhodes (-79.2 percent), Kavala (-78.9 percent), Chania (-78.6 percent), Kos (-78.5 percent), Zakynthos (-77.5 percent), Santorini (-77.2 percent), Corfu (-76.9 percent), Mykonos (-75.4 percent), Samos (-70.9 percent), Thessaloniki (-63.2 percent) and Mytilini (-55.8 percent).

In August alone, the company’s data showed that 2.4 million passengers were handled at Greece’s 14 regional airports compared to 5.4 million in August 2019, showing a decrease of 55.5 percent.

Photo: GTP

The top five markets in terms of international passengers to Greece during that month were the UK (315,840 travelers), Germany (205,959), Poland (81,859), Italy (70,525) and The Netherlands (52,299).

In addition, according to the data, the majority of international arrivals at three of the airports Fraport Greece manages were tourists from the UK. More specifically, on Zakynthos, British tourists represented 50 percent of the total arrivals on the island; on Santorini, they represented 29 percent of visitors; and on Mykonos, Brits represented 24 percent of arrivals.

Considering the data, industry sources said that it is clear that the recent decisions of the governments of the United Kingdom and The Netherlands to impose quarantine on travelers returning from those islands will leave a further blow on the Greek tourism market.

Air travel in Greece hit overall

It is obvious that the Covid-19 pandemic hit air travel in Greece hard when also considering the data recently provided by Athens International Airport (AIA) which showed that its passenger traffic was very below its usual levels both during the first eight months of the year (down by 65.3 percent) and in the month of August alone (down by 60.4 percent).

Moreover, according to the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), the turnover index in air transport during the second quarter of the year compared to that of 2019 decreased by 84.8 percent, while an increase of 16.5 percent was observed for the corresponding period of 2019 compared to 2018.