Eurocontrol Sees Strong Tourist Flows to Greece into Fall

Athens International Airport (AIA).

Tourist flows to Greece are set to continue on an upward trend into fall, said the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) recently.

According to Eurocontrol’s “European Network Operations Plan 2023 Rolling Seasonal Plan”, the number of total flights to Greece are expected to increase by up to 10 percent over the eight-week period from July 17 to September 10.

More specifically, based on the number of secured slots at airports, the number of flights to Greek airports through to September 10 are expected to exceed 2022 levels for the same period. The Brussels-based organization sees the number of flights to range from 2,000 to 3,500 a day also exceeding pre-Covid 2019 levels.

Athens Airport performance in H1 – Expected traffic into fall

Indicatively, according to data by Athens International Airport (AIA), in the first half of the year (H1) a total of 105,600 flights touched down in the Greek capital, up by 15.5 percent and by 4.6 percent over H1 in 2022 and in 2019. Passenger numbers also rose in H1 2023 with AIA handling 12.07 million travelers, an increase of 34.5 percent over H1 2022 and up by 7.2 percent, over 2019.

Eurocontrol has released the following information of the expected traffic to Athens Airport until September 10.

Source: Eurocontrol.

Greek regional airports performance in H1

The country’s 14 regional airports managed by Fraport Greece also recorded positive numbers during January-June.

Fraport Greece handles the airports at three mainland gateways in Greece (Thessaloniki, Aktion, and Kavala) and on 11 Greek islands (Chania on Crete, Kefalonia, Kos, Mykonos, Lesvos, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, Skiathos and Zakynthos).

Greece’s 14 regional airports handled 96,200 flights in the first half of the year, marking a 4.7 percent rise over 2022 and a 3.3 percent increase over 2019.  During that time, the airports handled 11.8 million passengers up by 14.3 percent over H1 2022 and by 7.8 percent over 2019. On the downside, passenger traffic through the airports of Mykonos and Santorini declined in June compared to the same month a year ago by 3.1 percent and 266,300 arrivals and by 1.3 percent and 412,000 arrivals, respectively.

Eurocontrol sees the positive passenger traffic figures at Thessaloniki continuing until September based on the number of secured slots at the city’s airport. Following is a table of the expected traffic to Thessaloniki Airport until September 10.

Source: Eurocontrol.

Eurocontrol is a pan-European, civil-military organisation dedicated to supporting European aviation.