ACI Europe: Airports in Greece Among Top Gainers in April

Photo © Greek Travel Pages

Once again, Athens International Airport (AIA) was ranked among the best performing airports in its category in Europe in April compared to pre-pandemic 2019 recording an increase of 25.1 percent, according to air traffic data released by the Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe).

Following AIA in April were the airports of Istanbul (+13.2 percent), Palma de Mallorca (+11.7 percent), Lisbon (+10.5 percent), and Antalya (+8.6 percent).

Athens Airport was also amongst airports recording the highest increases in April up by 16.2 percent over April 2023 and by 21.5 percent over March 2019. Other gainers were the airports of Antalya, Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, Prague, and Munich.

According to ACI, airports in the EU+ market are very close to fully recouping 2019 levels at -1.1 percent.

Greece’s airports were among those exceeding 2019 levels by 21.7 percent in April followed by Croatia (+20.9 percent), Poland (+20.3 percent), Malta (+18.5 percent), Iceland (+17.2 percent), Luxembourg (+17 percent), and Portugal (+13.6 percent).

Still lagging behind, the airports of Finland (-30.6 percent), Slovenia (-29.5 percent), Slovakia (-24.1 percent), and Sweden (-23.6 percent).

Overall, according to ACI, passenger traffic in Europe rose by 8.5 percent in April compared to the same month last year but volumes were still down by 0.2 percent over pre-pandemic 2019.

Passenger traffic in the EU+ market increased by 7.7 percent in April compared to the same month last year with the best performances at the airports of Estonia (+28 percent), the Czech Republic (+18 percent), Slovenia (+17 percent), and Poland (+17 percent).

The weakest performances were seen at the airports of Sweden (-0.1 percent), Ireland (+0.6 percent), Latvia (+1.8 percent), and Portugal (+2.4 percent).

ACI Europe’s data also showed that the Greek regional airport of Skiathos recorded a 128.4 percent rise in April (vs. April 2019) in the category of medium sized airports (welcoming between 1 million and 10 million passengers per year).