Athens Welcoming 43 New Air Routes and More Airlines for Summer 2022

Athens International Airport (AIA) will welcome 43 new routes on existing services, including 6 new airlines and 8 new destinations for the summer 2022 season.

Presenting the latest developments for the airport, AIA’s director of communications and marketing, Ioanna Papadopoulou, said that Air Albania, BA Euroflyer, Jet2, TUS Airways and Flyr are making their debut at AIA with flights to Athens this summer. The five carriers are joined by Condor, which has relaunched flights to Athens following a 20-year absence, bringing the number of new airlines to Athens to six.

She added that AIA this summer will be connected directly with the following eight new destinations:

– Bilbao – flights by Volotea (from May 27) and AEGEAN (from July 1)
– Birmingham – flights by Jet2 (in service)
– Boston – flights by Delta (from May 29)
– Kuwait – flights by AEGEAN (from June 26)
– Florence – flights by AEGEAN (from June 7)
– Leipzig – flights by Condor (from May 2)
– Nis – flights by Air Serbia (from June 15)
– Turin – flights by Volotea (from May 27)

In total for 2022, AIA will be welcoming 43 new routes (seen below) on existing services, which will significantly boost the tourist flow to the Greek capital.

“These are the developments so far,” Papadopoulou told journalists during a media event, adding that passenger traffic seems to be on the road to recovery (from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic).

“This is despite the fact, of course, that we are very worried and concerned about the geopolitical crisis in Ukraine and all the financial repercussions from this crisis. But so far it seems that the summer is developing rather well,” she said.

Presenting data on AIA’s performance this year, Papadopoulou said that passenger traffic was down 36 percent for the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2019.

However, she added that during the first 11 days of April the situation made a turn for the better.

“During these first days of April we have recovered almost 80 percent of the traffic we had in the same period in 2019, so we are down 19 percent in terms of passenger traffic,” Papadopoulou said, adding that the summer season up to now is going in the right direction.

43 new routes to Athens Airport for Summer ’22

Following are the new routes Athens Airport will be welcoming for summer 2022 (vs 2019 and 2020) by airline:

• AEGEAN – New routes from Athens to:

1. Amman: returning to AMM, last operated March 2020, the route is also operated by Royal Jordania
2. Basel: returning to BSL, last operated in summer 2019, the route is also operated by easyJet
3. Hannover: returning to HAJ, last operated in summer 2020 (August & September), sole operator on the route
4. Jeddah: returning to JED, last operated March 2020, the route is also operated by Saudia (summer seasonal services)
5. Kuwait: new destination for Athens, last operated in summer 2019 by Aegean, sole operator on the route
6. Nuremberg: new destination for Aegean, last operated March 2020 by Ryanair, sole operator on the route
7. Oslo: new destination for Aegean, the route is also operated by Norwegian, Flyr & SAS
8. Podgorica: returning to TGD, last operated in summer 2019, sole operator on the route
9. Tunis: returning to TUN, last operated in summer 2019, sole operator on the route
10. Valencia: returning to VLC, last operated in summer 2019, sole operator on the route
11. Zagreb: returning to ZAG, last operated in summer 2019, sole operator on the route
12. Bari: returning to BRI, last operated in summer 2019, the route is also flown by Volotea
13. Bilbao: new destination for Athens, the route is also operated by Volotea
14. Cluj: new destination for Aegean, last operated October 2019 by WizzAir, sole operator on the route, from June 23
15. Cologne: new destination for Aegean, the route is also operated by Eurowings and Ryanair
16. Florence: new destination for Athens
17. Ibiza: returning to IBZ, last operated in summer 2019, sole operator on the route, from June 28
18. Palermo: returning to PMO, last operated March 2020 by Ryanair, the route is also operated by Volotea
19. Paphos: returning to PFO, last operated March 2020 by Cyprus Airways & Olympic Air, the route is also operated by TUS Airways

• Volotea – New routes from Athens to:

1. Bari: returning to BRI, operated only in August 2021, the route is also operated by Aegean
2. Dubrovnik: returning to DBV, last operated in summer 2019, the route is also operated by Aegean & Croatia Airlines
3. Verona: returning to VRN, last operated in August 2021, sole operator on the route
4. Bordeaux: new destination for Volotea, the route is also operated by Aegean (summer seasonal services)
5. Nantes: new destination for Volotea, the route is also operated by Aegean & Transavia France (summer seasonal services)
6. Bilbao: new destination for Athens, the route is also operated by Aegean
7. Turin: new destination for Athens, last operated in September 2018 by Aegean, sole operator on the route
8. Palermo: returning to PMO, last operated March 2020 by Ryanair, the route is also operated by Aegean

• Jet2.com – New routes from Athens to:

1. Birmingham: new airline at AIA and new destination for Athens, BHX last served back in 2017, sole operator on the route
2. Manchester: new airline at AIA, the route is also operated by Aegean & easyJet

• Condor – New routes from Athens to:

1. Dusseldorf: new airline at AIA, the route is also operated by Aegean and Eurowings
2. Leipzig : new airline at AIA & new destination for Athens, sole operator on the route

• Air Transat – New routes from Athens to:

1. Montreal: returning to YUL, last operated in summer 2019, the route is also operated by Air Canada
2. Toronto: returning to YYZ, last operated August 2020, the route is also operated by Air Canada

• Delta – New route from Athens to:

1. Boston: new long haul destination for Athens, destination number 7 in the US market, sole operator on the route

• SAS – New route from Athens to:

1. Gothenburg: returning to GOT, last operated in summer 2019, sole operator on the route

• Norwegian – New route from Athens to:

1. Helsinki: returning to HEL, last operated in summer 2019, the route is also operated by Aegean

• Air Serbia – New route from Athens to:

1. Nis: new destination for Athens

• BA Euroflyer – New route from Athens to:

1. London LGW: New airline to AIA, subsidiary of BA, operating LGW in addition to BA regular LHR services

• Wizz Air – New route from Athens to:

1. Vilnius: returning to VNO, last operated in summer 2019, the route is also operated by Ryanair

• Croatia Airlines – New route from Athens to:

1. Split: returning to SPU, last operated in summer 2019, sole operator on the route

• Air Albania – New route from Athens to:

1. Tirana: new airline to AIA, the route is also operated by Aegean

• Flyr – New route from Athens to:

1. Oslo: new airline to AIA, the route is also operated by Aegean, Norwegian and SAS

• TUS Airways – New route from Athens to:

1. Paphos: new airline to AIA (last operated September 2018), new destination for TUS Airways, last operated in March 2020 by Cyprus Airways & OlympicAir, the route is also operated by Aegean