Greece Air Capacity Drops 10% as German Demand Wanes

Santorini, Greece.

German demand for Mediterranean destinations is still slow leading to a 10,52 percent decline in air capacity to Greece when compared to 2022 and a 2,76 percent drop over 2019 levels, said travel intelligence provider Mabrian this week.

 However, last October, the German Travel Association (DRV) said German tourist demand for Greece was going strong, with holiday package sales up by 22 percent in 2022 compared to 2019.

 According to Mabrian, based on the number of air seats available from Germany to Mediterranean destinations starting on February 28 for the March 1-June 30 period, Turkey and Egypt are the only countries increasing their air capacity with Germany compared to the same periods in 2022 and 2019. Turkey is increasing seats by almost 20 percent compared to pre-Covid 2019.

Despite the waning demand, Spain continues to be the leading holiday choice for Germans with more than 5 million air seats scheduled for the period in review, the same as in 2022 but still down by 13 percent over 2019.

Source: Mabrian.

Italy and France have improved air connectivity with Germany, according to Mabrian, when compared to 2022, but are still some down on 2019 having recovered only 75 percent of pre-Covid levels.

“Whilst no one would expect us to turn the clock back to 2019 and absolutely everything to be the same, in some markets around the world we are seeing a return to broadly similar trends. But in the case of Germany this is not happening at all: the recovery is uneven and slower,” said Carlos Cendra, director of Sales & Marketing Mabrian.

Cendra attributes the slow demand to economic and social conditions, the air travel chaos of summer 2022, and “other factors”.

“Not only is there less travel, destinations are recovering at different speeds and some are overtaking others in the ranking tables,” he said.