International Travel Flows to Greece Continue Steady Trend

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International arrivals to Greece are maintaining the momentum of previous months marking a 110.5 percent increase in September compared to the same month a year ago, said the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) on Friday.

According to the data, overall air passenger traffic rose by 98.5 percent in the same month reflecting a steady course towards recovery.

First nine months of 2021

Indicatively, for the third month in a row, overall data from all of the country’s airports for the nine-month January-September period show a 62.3 percent increase compared to the same period in 2020. Compared to pre-Covid-19 2019, nine-month figures are down by 49. percent.

In total, Greek airports handled a total of 27,063,506 passengers (up by 62.3 percent) in the first nine months of the year compared to 16,677,709 in 2020.

The country’s airports welcomed 293,416 flights – 122,496 domestic and 170,920 international – marking a 42.3 percent rise over the same period in 2020 and 206,234 flights. Compared, however, to 433,320 flights in pre-pandemic 2019, the number of flights for the January-September period was down by 32.3 percent and the number of passengers weaker by 49.3 percent. 

Photo source: Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA)

In September, Greece welcomed 2,352,788 travelers from abroad against 1,117,524 in 2020 marking a 110.5 percent increase.

The number of flights through Greek airports also increased in September to 57,846, up by 59.6 percent over same month in 2020 and 36,235 flights.

Greek airports handled a total of 6,335,953 passengers (arrivals/departures) in the same month up by 98.5 percent compared to September 2020 and 3,192,570 passengers, but down by 26.9 percent. Compared to pre-pandemic 2019, international arrivals dropped by 26.9 percent from 3,217,115 in September 2019 while overall passenger traffic through the country’s airports fell by 25.7 percent from 8,523,771 visitors in September 2019.

The country’s largest airport, Athens International Airport (AIA) reported that passenger traffic in September dropped by 34.1 percent over September 2019 levels with flights in the first nine months of 2021 down by 35.2 percent over 2019.