Market Analysis VIII: Athens Airport’s Top Markets – UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Athens in the Spotlight!

Welcome to GTP Headlines’ weekly feature, spotlighting the top 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.

Our next stop takes us to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – or “The Thousand and One” connections – highlighting the impressive route developments and increased traffic that are driving international traffic growth at Athens International Airport (AIA).

While the UAE primarily serves as a key hub connecting Athens to destinations like India, the Far East, and Australia, recent years have seen a surge in local traffic as the UAE emerges as a popular destination for Greek travelers.

The UAE market ranked 14th in terms of direct traffic in 2023, with traffic for the first 7 months of 2024 recording very strong growth, when compared to the same period in 2023 at 28%. Compared to 2019, January to July, direct traffic increased by 16%.

The Athens market to the UAE is benefiting by a long-lasting strong presence of Emirates and Etihad, offering multiple daily frequencies and with Athens latest additions of AEGEAN to Dubai, since November 2023 and Air Arabia to Sharjah from June 2024.

The spectacular growth of available services and capacity to the UAE, is boosting not only connecting passengers to Athens but also outbound travel from Greeks to the UAE. Based on Athens International Airport Passenger Survey, Greeks traveling to Dubai grew by 87% in the first half of 2024, compared to the same period 2023. As a result, the UAE is developing to a popular international destination for the Greeks.

The importance of the UAE market is also evident from the fact that Emirates is not only connecting Athens to the East , but the airline is highly successfully operating the only year-round service from Athens to the USA (New York).

Network Developments: 41 weekly departures in 2024

Broadening the horizon!

For 2024, Athens is directly connected to 3 airport destinations with flights operated by 5 airlines – AEGEAN, Air Arabia, Etihad, Emirates and WizzAir – resulting in 41 weekly departures, or almost 6 daily (peak Summer season).

Current Status – 2024

Back in 2019, Athens was directly connected to 2 airport destinations with flights operated by 2 airlines, offering 28 weekly departures.

The network to the United Arab Emirates in peak summer

The Athens network to the UAE is benefited by spectacular route developments in recent years, with one more to start in October 2024!

• Importance of Athens to the UAE was evident even during the pandemic (2021) as the WizzAir newly established subsidiary at Abu Dhabi, selected Athens as its first European destination.
• In 2023, Emirates restored its double daily service to Athens, Etihad offered 9 weekly and WizzAir increased weekly frequencies.
• 2024 is the year that the UAE network for Athens is undergoing a spectacular transformation. From November 2023, Aegean Airlines entered the market operating to Dubai and from June 2024 Air Arabia added the 3rd destination to the country, connecting Athens to Sharjah. All in all, this is the highest network that Athens ever had to the UAE.
• Even before this Summer is over, Aegean announced the inauguration of a new service to Abu Dhabi, from October 2024, operating 3 weekly frequencies for the winter season.

Passenger traffic evolution

In 2023, direct passenger traffic recovered to 92% of pre-pandemic (2019), with traffic surpassing pre-pandemic levels from November onwards. For the first 7 months of 2024, direct traffic is growing at 28% to same period 2023.

The enhancement of the direct network and increase in available capacity resulted in almost 10 thousand additional direct passengers in the winter months (November 2023 to March 2024 versus November 2022 to March 2023).

Based on global travel data (IATA) for 2023, the local traffic (O&D) between Athens and the UAE has different seasonality characteristics to the total direct traffic. The latter is mostly affected by connecting traffic via UAE to Athens and therefore is more seasonal in the summer period. The local UAE-ATH traffic however is demonstrating stronger demand in the 2nd half of the year, with split between Summer and Winter (2023) at 58% and 42% respectively. Even more interesting, when we compare the seasonality pattern 10 years back (2013) summer at the time accounted for 75% of the total traffic.

Despite the high number of weekly flights and services, global travel data from IATA reveals that in 2023, 12.4 thousand one-way passengers traveled from the UAE to Athens through other airports.

Obviously, the bulk of the direct traffic from UAE to Athens is connections from the East. IATA reveals that for 2023, Australia was the biggest source market for the UAE connections to Athens, followed by India and the Philippines.

Passenger demographics:
The Emirati traveler for Athens

Travelers from the UAE are considering Athens as a must-see destination with historical interest, while they combine Athens with a visit to popular islands. They travel mainly as Couples, or solo with an average age of 38 years.

Main characteristics

Occupation: 86% in the private sector.
Length of stay: 9 days in Greece with 3 days in Athens.
Trip purpose: Holidays 74%.
Stay: 37% stay in hotels and resorts near the sea, 45% choose Athens for city break.
Activities: City bus tour and Argosaronic cruises are the most popular activities. They are also keen on visiting Athens neighborhoods and archeological sites.
Favorite destinations: Santorini (63%)

Evaluation of Athens: 61% said that the city experience was above their expectations.
Revisit Athens: 60% stated that they will revisit during 2024.

Future opportunities

(a) additional capacity as popularity of the UAE is increasing, supported by promotional offers in air fares and travel packages.
(b) enhancing via Athens connections to the UAE, from the Balkans and Eastern Europe that the UAE direct capacity is lacking demand.
(c) further exploration of global opportunities that can link UAE-Athens to other global destinations, uniting strong demand from both the UAE and from Athens.

View also:

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

Market Analysis II: Athens Airport’s Top Markets – UNITED KINGDOM

Market Analysis III: Athens Airport’s Top Markets – GERMANY

Market Analysis IV: Athens Airport’s Top Markets – FRANCE

Market Analysis V: Athens Airport’s Top Markets – ITALY

Market Analysis VI: Athens Airport’s Top Markets – CHINA

Market Analysis VII: Athens Airport’s Top Markets – POLAND