Greece’s Regional Airports Handle 820,000 Arrivals in March

Greece’s 14 regional airports handled 820,000 arrivals in March, a 12.2 percent increase over the same month a year ago, said managing company Fraport Greece this week.

The figure reflects an earlier start of the tourist season this year on the back of a strong February.

More specifically, international arrivals in March increased by 16.1 percent to 337,000 and domestic traffic was up by 9.7 percent to 483,000.

Leading the way in March was the airport of Santorini, which marked a 24.4 percent rise, followed by the airports of Mykonos (+21.2 percent) and Aktio (+18.1 percent).

International arrivals were down for the month compared to a year earlier at eight of the 14 regional facilities with the only airports seeing increases being those of Kavala, Thessaloniki, Zakynthos, Kos, and Rhodes.

In the first quarter (Q1) of the year, traffic through the 14 airports increased by 11.2 percent to 2.09 million passengers compared to 1.88 million in Q1 2023.

International arrivals were up by 13.2 percent to 806,000 and domestic traffic by 10 percent to 1.29 million over 2023. Top source markets in Q1 were Germany, Cyprus, the UK, Italy and the Netherlands.

In Q1, all Fraport-run airports across Greece recorded increases with the facility on Corfu leading the way with a 25.2 percent rise compared to the same period last year.

Next in line were the airports of Santorini (+16.2 percent) and Rhodes (15.9 percent) boosted by the season’s first charter flights.

Q1 2024 also saw an 8.4 percent rise in flight numbers for the 14 regional airports with international flights up by 12.5 percent and domestic flights by 6.9 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago.