Local airports dodge Euro chaos
Despite the unprecedented chaos observed in the middle of the tourism season at many European airports, Greek airports have avoided getting into a similar situation.
The reason for the long delays or even cancellations of flights at major international airports is, according to experts, their inability (including air traffic controllers) to return to pre-pandemic levels of performance while there has been a massive rebound in demand for international travel.
However, despite the good performance of Greek airports, Greek tourism is not unaffected since canceled flights, for example due to problems at London Gatwick, Frankfurt or Paris, often lead to cancellations and delays in flights to Greece. In addition, the delays that are piling up at foreign airports for aircraft whose final destination is in Greece are leading to corresponding delays and postponements of flights by the same aircraft from Greece, Greek aviation industry sources explain.
According to the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt, “things are going somewhat better in Greece, where passengers report waiting only a few minutes at security checks, while baggage reclaim is operating without delays.” Handelsblatt cites sources at Athens International Airport as saying that “so far we are not experiencing any problems with air and passenger traffic,” although the fact that “domino effects in the travel chain can lead to problems” is acknowledged. This mainly means delays in the arrival of planes from other overburdened European airports. Deutsche Welle, for its part, attributes the good performance of Greek airports to the fact that Germany’s Fraport took over the management of 14 regional airports in this country five years ago, investing 440 million euros in their modernization.
According to Airports Council International Europe, Greece has now become the first country to return to pre-2019 levels in terms of air traffic. This is also attributed to a legislative regulation passed by the Greek Parliament under the pressure of air traffic congestion in 2019. From May to October, it gives bonuses to air traffic controllers with the fewest delays. According to provisional data, the accuracy of flight times in June this year improved by 70% compared to 2019.
