Routes Awards 2022: Airline Companies Put Athens Airport in 1st Place

Athens International Airport Communications and Marketing Director Ioanna Papadopoulou (center) with the airport’s award-winning Airline Development & Marketing team at the Routes World 2022 event in Las Vegas.

Athens International Airport (AIA) has been crowned winner at this year’s Routes Awards in the 10-17.5 million passenger category.

Held during the Routes World 2022 event in Las Vegas, the Routes Awards for airports highlight the organisations which have excelled in route development marketing. Split into new size categories, they showcase the marketing support that airports have provided to their airline partners in the past twelve months. The Routes Awards for airports are voted for by airlines. The airport division sizes are under 5 million, 5-10 million, 10-17.5 million and over 17.5 million.

Athens Airport summer 2022 traffic reached almost 2019 levels

According to an announcement by Routes World, Athens Airport, winner of the 10-17.5 million passenger category, is regaining its position as the hub for one of the fastest growing and dynamic aviation and tourism markets worldwide. During summer 2022, traffic at AIA reached almost the same levels as 2019, while the airport has welcomed eight new airlines and 11 new destinations.

“We feel great pleasure and special honor that Athens Airport has once again emerged at the top of its category, with the votes and universal recognition of its airline partners,” said AIA Communications and Marketing Director Ioanna Papadopoulou.

Nominees in the same category (10-17.5 million passengers) were the airports of Munich, Rome Fiumicino and Vienna.

Athens Airport’s nomination at the Routes World event, which brought together 2,000 airport and airline professionals, once again drew praise from the airlines’ judging panel, which focused on the impressive growth and recovery of passenger traffic recorded in Athens, facing the unprecedented situation of the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on air travel.

Airline companies honored AIA for its marketing strategy and continuous effort to create the conditions and tools needed to support and develop their activity from/to Athens.

“This resulted in the addition of new airlines and routes to our airport network and was instrumental in the recovery level of passenger traffic in 2022,” Papadopoulou said.

The World Routes is a highly regarded aviation industry event, recognizing marketing services that support new and existing air services, as well as excellence and innovation in the route development community.

Brussels Airport was named “Overall Winner” of the World Routes 2022, as well as triumphing in the 5-10 million passenger category.