Regional Airports in Greece See H1 Traffic Outdo 2019 Levels

Passenger traffic through the majority of Greece’s 14 regional airports has fully recovered reaching or even exceeding pre-Covid 2019 levels in the first half of the year (H1), according to data released recently by managing company Fraport Greece.

More specifically, the country’s 14 regional airports handled a total of 11.8 million arrivals in the January-June 2023 period marking a 7.8 percent increase over H1 2019 and a 14.3 percent rise compared to 2022.

Domestic travel was up by 3 percent and international flows by 9.7 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels and by 23.8 percent and 11.2 percent respectively over 2022.

Still slow to recover were the airports of Kavala reporting an 11.4 percent drop, Lesvos (-1.3 percent), Samos (-0.4 percent) and Mykonos (-1.4 percent). While compared to 2022 data, Mykonos was the only airport marking a 4.2 percent decline.

Recording the largest growth were the airports of Aktion, where traffic was up by 27.5 percent and Skiathos (+25.6 percent) compared to pre-pandemic levels. Thessaloniki airport meanwhile welcomed more than 3 million passengers and Rhodes over 2.1 million.

June

For the month of June, the country’s regional airports handled 4.9 million travelers with domestic traffic up by 9.4 percent and international arrivals by 11.9 percent compared to 2019.

The majority of Fraport-run airports outdid 2019 levels with the exceptions of Thessaloniki (-1.3 percent), Kavala (-1.4 percent), and Samos (-3.5 percent) airports.

In June, Mykonos airport managed to recoup May losses marking a 6.5 percent rise over 2019 but seeing a 1.4 percent drop in domestic arrivals.

The largest traffic growth was reported by the airports of Skiathos up by 29.6 percent and Rhodes which handled a total of 950,000 travelers.