Greece Welcomes Addition of Airline Seats in Winter Period

Greek tourism stakeholders welcomed the increase by almost 17 percent of available airline seats to destinations countrywide during the 2023-2024 winter period.

More specifically, according to INSETE, the Greek Tourism Confederation’s (SETE) research body and to data provided by its Air Data Tracker, available seats for the November 2023-March 2024 period were up by 16.8 percent to 4.7 million compared to the same period a year earlier. Last year, airlines began to expand their schedules to Greece increasing available seats in 2024 in order to meet growing traveler demand.

Indicative of the dynamic, in the first three months of this year, scheduled airlines seats were up by 16.6 percent for Athens, 11.3 percent for Thessaloniki, and 22.4 percent for Heraklion, Crete.

In terms of markets for the winter 2023-2024 period based on January 15, 2024 data, more airline seats to Greece have been added in Germany (+30.4 percent), a key source market, the UK (+3.5 percent), the US (+10.1 percent), France (+2.5 percent), Italy (+16.5 percent), and the Netherlands (+43 percent).

Bookings at the end of November for the winter season were also up by 12 percent compared to the same period in 2023, said INSETE.

On the down side, declining arrival numbers at the airports of Rhodes (-12.5 percent), Chania (-43.6 percent), Corfu (-19.1 percent), Santorini (-47.5 percent), Kos (-2 percent), and Mykonos (-73 percent), indicate that the season will open traditionally in spring.