August Traffic Shoots Up at Regional Airports in Greece

Traffic through 14 regional airports in Greece surpassed pre-pandemic  2019 levels in August by 9.4 percent to 5.99 million passengers compared to 5.48 million in the same month in 2019, announced airport operator Fraport Greece.

More specifically, traffic through the country’s 14 regional airports including those at three mainland gateways in Greece ( Thessaloniki, Aktion, and Kavala) and on 11 Greek islands (Chania on Crete, Corfu, Kefalonia, Kos, Mykonos, Lesvos, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, Skiathos and Zakynthos), was up by 3.3 percent in June, by 11.1 percent in July, and by 9.4 percent  in August compared to the same months in 2019.

In the first eight months of 2022 to August, passenger traffic rose by 2.2 percent over 2019 to 22.21 million passengers against 21.73 million in 2019 – a 2.2 percent increase – and up by 111.8 percent compared to 2021.

International traffic increased by 12.1 percent to 5.21 million passengers while domestic traffic dropped by 5.7 percent to 0.78 million.

Airports recording the largest rises in August compared to 2019 were those of Santorini up by 39.8 percent, Aktion by 22.9 percent, Corfu by 20.2 percent and Skiathos by 18.4 percent.

Declines were recorded at the airports of Lesvos down by 10.9 percent, Kavala (10.7 percent) and Thessaloniki (8.3 percent). In the eight-month January-August period, traffic fell at the airports of Thessaloniki, Lesvos and Samos.

In the January-August period, the country’s regional airports handled 18.07 million passengers marking a 6.4 percent rise in international visitors but saw a 12.7 percent decline in domestic travel to 4.14 million.

In the same period, the following airports marked increased traffic: Aktion (21.7 percent), Corfu (13.4 percent), Mykonos (10.2 percent), Rhodes (4.6 percent), Santorini (18.6 percent), Skiathos (12.9 percent), Kos (0.9 percent), Zakynthos (3.6 percent), Kefalonia (5 percent) and Chania (8.8 percent).

Traffic dropped at the airports of Thessaloniki (16.6 percent), Lesvos (13.7 percent), Samos (5.7 percent), and Kavala (20.6 percent).

The country’s leading airport AIA in Athens fell short of pre-pandemic 2019 levels by 6.1 percent in August welcoming a total of 2.85 million passengers.