Market Analysis I: Athens Airport’s Top Markets – UNITED STATES

Athens in the Spotlight!

Welcome to GTP Headlines’ weekly feature, spotlighting the top 10 markets of Greece’s largest and foremost gateway.
Each week, based on exclusive facts and data of Athens International Airport, we’ll explore the markets that bring travelers from around the world to Greece through this bustling hub.

Today, we turn our attention to the US market, reflecting the significant role it plays in shaping Athens International Airport’s (AIA) international traffic.

A TOP market for Athens Airport, the US ranked 1st in terms of foreign arrivals and 6th in direct traffic in 2023.

For the first half of 2024, the US is again in the TOP position in foreigners’ arrivals (Tourism) and 7^th in direct, recording strong growth compared to the same period 2023 with +31% and +7% respectively.

When compared to the pre-pandemic era, the growth of traffic from the US is even more spectacular, with +128% in Direct traffic and +69% in Foreign arrivals.

The robust growth in traffic is mainly driven by stellar route developments in the market, increasing available direct capacity by +118% (vs. 2019).

Network Developments: 82 weekly departures in 2024

For 2024, Athens is directly connected to 7 airport destinations with flights operated by 5 airlines – Delta, American Airlines, United Airlines, Norse and Emirates – resulting in 82 weekly departures (peak Summer season).

Current Status – Summer 2024

Back in 2019, Athens was directly connected to 4 airport destinations with flights operated by 5 airlines, offering 46 weekly departures.

The Stellar Route Development

In 2021 and in 2022, Athens enriched the US direct network with American Airlines starting flights to New York (JFK) in 2021, followed by Delta that inaugurated 2 new destinations Atlanta and Boston with Boston initially served with 3 weekly frequencies. In addition, in the Summer of 2022, United inaugurated direct flights to Washington. As a result, in 2022 Athens’ network grew from 4 airport destinations to 7 and from 46 weekly departures to 63.

In 2023, available weekly departures increased to 67, with the increase of the Boston weekly frequencies from 3 to 4 and a triumphant return to double daily from/to  New York (JFK). With the network further enriched this Summer, reaching 82 weekly departures driven by the upgrade of Boston services to daily (from 4 last Summer), the addition of daily flights with United to Chicago (new destination for United) and by welcoming newest airline Norse, offering 5 weekly departures to New York JFK.

In addition to the new network developments, a number of services in the US market have commenced earlier enriching the available direct capacity in the off peak season months or even in the Winter period. The most significant extension was  delivered from Delta since Winter 2022/2023

• Winter 2022/2023 operating up to January 2023 and started again in March 2023. Same pattern repeated this Winter 2023/2024 season.
• Summer 2022, American to Chicago started from April instead of May and ended in October instead of September.
• Summer 2023, United to Washington ended in October instead of September.
• Summer 2023, United to New York (EWR) ended in October instead of September.
• Summer 2024, United to New York (EWR) started from March instead of April.
• Summer 2024, Delta to Boston, started in April instead of May and increased weekly departures to daily from 4 (Summer 2023).
• Summer 2024, American to New York (JFK) started from April instead of May.

Passenger traffic evolution

Compared to pre-Pandemic (2019), direct passenger traffic grew by 66% in 2023 and is increasing further in 2024.

The enhancement of the direct network and extension of season resulted in 42 thousand additional direct passengers, in the Winter months (November 2023 to March 2024 versus November 2022 to March 2022).

Based on global travel data (IATA) for destination Athens, Indirect traffic accounts for 70% of the market total traffic with 30% traveling non-stop from the US to Athens in 2023.

The 2 main New York airports (JFK & EWR) were reported to be dominating Athens direct traffic in terms of Market Share, as they serve not only as a point-to-point locations but as main HUBs for intra USA travel to/from Athens.

However, Athens enhancement of the US network is transforming the direct flows, as progressively the dominance of New York (JFK&EWR) is reducing from 76% in 2019 to 63% in 2023 and 57% during the first half of 2024.

Smaller destination airports gradually increase Market Share with Atlanta leading the way.

Based on global travel data, significant origin City markets are revealed including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Houston or Dallas and others that are not direct connected to Athens.

Los Angeles in specific, is the 2^nd largest origin City market in the US for Direct and Indirect traffic, followed by San Francisco in the 6^th place.

Passenger demographics:
The American traveler for Athens

American travelers are labeled as “Travelholics” – they consider Athens as an easy gateway  to Europe, they travel mainly as Couples & Friends with an average age of 45 years.

Main characteristics

Occupation: 71% in private sector, 10% retired
Length of stay: 12 days in Greece, of which 42% is spent in Athens (5 days)
Trip purpose: Holidays (88%)
Stay: 76%  stay in hotels and resorts, while they have one of the highest participation percentage in cruises (12%)
Activities: Most of them enjoy the sea, 32% visit Athens riviera and have cruises in Saronic islands
Favorite destinations: Santorini (28%), Mykonos (14%), Crete (12%)

They choose Athens mainly because of its archaeological/cultural interest (37%), while 22% consider Athens to be convenient for them because of its easy access to their country.
In general, they do not take part in many activities in Athens, except for walks in the historical center/central neighborhoods of the city and of course a visit to the Acropolis Museum/Archaeological Museum.

Evaluation of Athens: 85% said that the city experience was above their expectations

Revisit Athens: 82% stated that they will revisit during 2024

Additional opportunities: Season extension & NEW direct flights
(LA, San Francisco, Houston, Miami)

Future opportunities for Network Developments in the US market include:

(a) the extension of the season to year-round, especially for New York, as so far only Emirates operates the market year-round,
(b) further extension of the season as it is evident that travel in the off-peak months is also increasing, and
(c) the addition of direct connections to the West Coast (Los Angeles or San Francisco) as the already indirect traffic is high and obviously new direct connections to the state of Texas (HOU, DFW) and/or to the state of Florida (MIA, ORL) are promising.

All in all, the US market proved its resilience and the ever increasing popularity of Athens and Greece overall. The increase in demand from the US is evident in the year-on-year traffic development.