Airports in Greece Full Speed Ahead for Record Year

Athens airport. Photo source: Flickr/ Leonid Mamchenkov.

Passenger traffic through Greece’s airports for the eight months to August reflect a strong dynamic leading to a record year, said aviation and airport experts during the 6th Infrastructure and Transport Conference – ITC 2023 this week.

According to the latest data by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority, more than 50 million passengers passed through Greek airports during January-August.

Addressing the conference, Athens International Airport (AIA) President Riccardo Lambiris confirmed the news, adding that by the end of the year AIA is set to exceed pre-Covid 2019 levels.

According to data he presented, Greece’s largest airport welcomed 25.58 million passengers in 2019. In January-August, AIA handled some 18.7 million passengers up from 17.3 million in the same month in 2019. September, meanwhile, is seeing an 11.5 percent rise over the same month in 2019. Indicative of the trend, Lambiris said that at some points more than 102,000 passengers go through AIA in a day.

According to Lambiris, travelers from Austria increased by 45 percent in the eight-month period over 2019, from Spain (+25 percent), France (+15 percent), the US (+63 percent), Israel (+68 percent), and Canada (+32 percent).

Fraport Greece expects overall rise in 2023 passenger traffic

Speaking at the same event, Alexander Zinell, CEO at Fraport Greece, which manages 14 regional airports across the country, also said he was expecting a record year.

Zinell said estimates placed passenger traffic in 2023 through the 14 airports at 33 million up from 31.19 million a year ago.

Traffic at the 14 Greek regional airports during the eight-month January–August period exceeded 24 million passengers compared to 22 million in 2022, with an increase of 8.5 percent. In August alone, passenger traffic rose to over 6.1 million passengers, up 2.5 percent when compared with the same month in 2022 (5.99 million).

Overall, traffic through the airports has been on an upward trend, he said, confirming however a drop compared to last year of traffic through Mykonos and  Santorini airports. In August Mykonos and Santorini lagged in passenger traffic by 2.9 percent and 6.1 percent respectively compared to the same month last year.

Moreover, he added that non-airport infrastructure upgrades were crucial so that the country’s airports will be able to handle the increasing tourist flows.