Air Passenger Traffic to Greece Continues to Mark Sharp Rise

Passport control at Athens International Airport. Photo source: Shutterstock

Passenger arrivals across all airports in Greece marked a sharp increase in the first four months of the year up by 7.4 percent compared to pre-Covid 2019 and by 38.4 percent over the same period in 2022, said the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) this week.

Greece’s airports include Athens International Airport (AIA), 24 regional airports managed by the HCAA and 14 regional airports under the management of Fraport Greece.

More specifically, according to the latest HCAA data for the January-April 2023 period, Greek airports handled a total (domestic and incoming) of 11,202,130 passengers compared to 8,096,732 in the same four-month period in 2022 and to 10,430,244 in 2019.

April passenger traffic increased to 4,325,061 up by 20.3 percent over the same month in 2022, when there were 3,595,123 arrivals and by 15.5 percent over 2019 and 3,745,671 arrivals.

Photo source: Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA)

Looking at flight data, total arrivals and departures in April came to 36,596 compared to 34,400 in 2022 and 33,727 in 2019, with air traffic up by 6.4 percent compared to 2022 and by 8.5 percent over 2019.

In the first four months of the year, a total of 102,274 flights were carried out compared to 92,563 in 2022 and 99,164 in 2019. Traffic in the January-April period grew by 10.5 percent over 2022 and by 3.1 percent against 2019.

Broken down, Greece’s 14 regional airports managed by Fraport exceeded pre-Covid 2019 levels in April handling a total of 1.6 million passengers and Athens International Airport (AIA) saw total passenger traffic in April rise by 7.6 percent over 2019 to 2.1 million travelers.