Greece’s airports handled a total of 9.7 million passengers in September marking a 9.3 percent rise over the same month in 2022 (8.8 million) and up by 13.9 percent compared to pre-Covid 2019, when 8.5 million people traveled to the country by air, found data released this week by the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA).
Additionally, nine-month passenger traffic – including domestic and international arrivals and departures – through Athens International Airport (AIA), the 24 airports managed by the HCAA and the 14 regional airports run by Fraport Greece, rose by 13.7 percent reaching 59.9 million up from 52.6 million in the January-September period in 2022 and from 53.4 million in 2019, marking a 12.1 percent rise.
In terms of flight figures in September, the country’s airports handled a total of 70,763 flights marking a 0.9 percent increase over the same month in 2022 and 70,142 flights.
September flight numbers were also up by 9.0 percent over pre-Covid 2019 and 64,906 flights.
January-September
Photo source: Region of South Aegean
In the nine-month period to September, the number of flights increased by 1.5 percent to 459,949 up from 453,279 in the same period in 2022 and by 6.1 percent compared to 2019 and 433,320 flights.
In the first eight months of the year, Greece’s airports handled 50 million passengers.
In view of the strong upward dynamic, aviation and airport experts speaking at the 6th Infrastructure and Transport Conference – ITC 2023 last month said they were expecting a record year.
AIA President Riccardo Lambiris forecast that by the end of 2023, AIA would be exceeding pre-pandemic levels, and Fraport Greece CEO Alexander Zinell said he too was expecting a record year for the country’s regional airports with estimates placing passenger traffic in 2023 through the 14 airports at 33 million up from 31.19 million a year ago.
