archive photo
Inbound flight activity to Greece surged in July, with international arrivals up by 146.8 percent against the same month in 2020, the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) said on Tuesday.
According to HCAA data, passenger traffic to Greece is on a steady upward trend stronger by 140.6 percent with overall data from all of the country’s airports for the seven-month period to July 2021 marking a 41.4 percent rise over the same period last year – for the first time after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, compared to the same period in pre-Covid 2019, traffic is still down by 63.5 percent.
More specifically, according to HCAA data for the January-July 2021 period, Greek airports handled a total of 12.6 million passengers, up by 41.4 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2020 and 8.9 million passengers.
The number of flights through the country’s airports in the period under review rose by 32.6 percent to 161,198 – 81,166 domestic and 80,032 international – compared to 121,599 flights operated in the same seven months in 2020.
However, when compared to seven-month 2019 pre-crisis data and 290,859 flights, 2021 is still down by 44.6 percent.
Total passenger traffic in January-July 2019 came to 34,656,788 which is down by 63.5 percent in 2021.
In related news, Corfu is also seeing a welcome increase in international arrivals with the island’s airport handling 1,055 incoming flights since August 1.
Travelers from the UK have taken the lead with at least 264 flights followed by German holidaymakers (in the lead in July), and Italians.
HCAA attributes the improved performance to an increasing number of passengers opting to travel using the vaccination certificate.
