Greek Airports Welcome Upsurge in 7-month Passenger Traffic

Photo © Greek Travel Pages (GTP)

Greek airports welcomed a surge in passenger traffic from January to July which outdid the same periods in both 2022 and pre-pandemic 2019 by 17.2 percent and 11.9 percent, respectively.

More specifically, according to data released by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) this week, the country’s airports handled a total of  38.7 million passengers, including domestic and international arrivals and departures, compared to 33.0 million in the same period in 2022 and 34.6 million in 2019 before the outbreak of Covid-19.

Flight numbers in the first seven months of the year increased by 2.8 percent over 2022 to 306,929 against 298,505 and by 5.5 percent over 2019 and 290,859 flights.

First-half-of-the-year data, when Greece’s airports welcomed 27.4 million passengers marking a 21.7 percent rise in traffic compared to H1 2022 and 10.9 percent increase over 2019, was indicative of the dynamic.

Strong tourist flows to Greece are set to continue into fall, said the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol).

Photo © acephotography/Athanassios Anagnostopoulos / Athens International Airport

In July, all of the country’s airports, which include Athens International Airport (AIA), 24 regional airports managed by the HCAA and 14 regional airports under the management of Fraport Greece, handled 11 million passengers, up by 7.6 percent over the same month in 2022 (10.5 million) and by 14.2 percent compared to record year 2019, when 9.9 million passenger went through Greek airports.

The number of flights, both domestic and international, through Greece’s airports in July dropped by 3.4 percent over the same month in 2022 to 81,984 from 84,875 but was up by 7.4 percent on 2019 and 76,370 flights.

Greece’s 14 regional airports exceeded pre-Covid levels in the first half of the year handling a total of 11.8 million arrivals in the January-June 2023 period and marking a 7.8 percent increase over H1 2019 and a 14.3 percent rise compared to 2022.