Greece’s August 2024 Passenger Traffic Up 18.7%, Ranking 5th in European Recovery

The number of passengers at Greek airports in August 2024 increased by 18.7 percent compared to 2019, according to data from the Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe).

With this rate of increase, Greece ranks fifth among European countries in terms of recovery since pre-pandemic August 2019. Poland leads with an increase of 25.5 percent, followed by Luxembourg at 25.4 percent, Iceland at 21.1 percent, Malta at 19.4 percent, Greece at 18.7 percent, Portugal at 14.3 percent, Italy at 14.2 percent, Croatia at 13.1 percent, and Cyprus at 11 percent.

Conversely, several countries recorded negative performance, including Finland (-27.4 percent), Slovenia (-21.5 percent), Sweden (-21.2 percent), Bulgaria (-20.1 percent), Germany (-13.4 percent), and Latvia (-11.1 percent), according to ACI Europe.

Europe’s airports welcomed over 250 million passengers in August

Passenger traffic across the European airport network increased by 5.6 percent in August compared to the same month last year, reaching 251.5 million passengers — an even better performance than the preceding month, July, which saw an increase of 5.1 percent.

According to ACI Europe, this resulted in passenger volumes standing well above their pre-pandemic level, reflecting a 2.3 percent increase compared to August 2019.

Airports in the UK and France came very close to full recovery, with Heathrow remaining the busiest European airport, followed by Istanbul in second place. Paris Charles de Gaulle ranked third, followed by Amsterdam Schiphol and Frankfurt.

Among mega and large airports (those with 10 to 40 million passengers per annum), the highest increases in August compared to the same month in 2023 were recorded at Catania (+21.1 percent), Budapest (+20.8 percent), Alicante (+15.4 percent), Tenerife (+14.4 percent), Copenhagen (+14.3 percent), Warsaw (+12.9 percent), Prague (+12.4 percent), Munich (+11.8 percent), and Athens (+10.4 percent).

Athens Airport: Highest increases compared to August 2019

Athens International Airport. Photo © Greek Travel Pages

When compared to August 2019, Athens International Airport (AIA) was Europe’s best-performing airport in its category (mega airports), recording the highest increases in passenger traffic at 19.7 percent. It was followed by Paris Orly at 14.6 percent, Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen at 13 percent, Lisbon at 8.3 percent, and Palma de Mallorca at 7.2 percent.

According to ACI Europe, reflecting structural changes in demand, the performance of Europe’s airports was driven primarily by international passenger traffic, which increased by 7.1 percent compared to August 2023, while domestic passenger traffic registered a slight decrease of 0.2 percent during the same period.

Regarding aircraft movements, these increased by 3.6 percent in August across the European airport network compared to the same period last year, coming very close to full recovery at a decline of 0.6 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels (August 2019).

ACI Europe: Better policies and regulations needed

ACI Europe Managing Director Olivier Jankovec expressed satisfaction with August’s record, despite “the many headwinds” the airport industry continues to face, including escalating geopolitical tensions, rising airfares, supply pressures, and chronic air traffic management capacity issues.

“If anything, this speaks volumes about the fact that air travel is an intrinsic part of our European way of life,” he said.

Jankovec called for better policies and regulations, noting that “this is much needed at the EU level to effectively support and enable aviation decarbonization, but also at the national level. Just think about the still unresolved passenger cap at Dublin Airport or this week’s ill-advised plans by France to suffocate air connectivity under more taxes.”