Data show tourism soaring
Projections by Eurocontrol point to a record number of flights, 10% more than last year
The prospects for Greek tourism remain positive for the coming months, as the data from the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) show for the week up to and including September 10.
Based on data from airport slot bookings, Eurocontrol estimates that the number of flights to Greece will increase, compared to 2022, in the next eight weeks starting on Monday. Domestic and international flights are expected to increase up to 10% compared to last year, with Eurocontrol putting their number at between 2,000 and 3,500 per day. Flights for 2023 even outnumber those of 2019, having already surpassed the levels of the year before the pandemic last summer.
In the first half of 2023, the number of flights at Athens International Airport, the country’s largest, reached 105,600, having exceeded by 15.5% and 4.6% the performances of 2022 and 2019 respectively. At the 14 regional airports managed by Fraport Greece, the 96,200 flights in the year’s first half outnumbered the same period in 2022 and 2019 by 4.7% and 3.3% respectively.
The number of passengers increased from the beginning of the year until June on an annual basis. Some 12.07 million people passed through Athens Airport in the first half of this year, with passenger traffic increasing by 34.5% and 7.2% compared to the same period of 2022 and 2019. At the 14 regional airports, the total traffic of 11.8 million passengers was 14.3% and 7.8% higher than the first half of 2022 and 2019 respectively.
Not all airports saw an increase in traffic in June this year compared to the first month of summer 2022. Percentage-wise, Kavala registered the biggest increase with 26.7% more passengers (53,460). Skiathos followed with 20.3% more and 104,700 visitors. A total of 544,100 people passed through Hania’s Ioannis Daskalogiannis Airport in June, which is 9% more than in 2022. Thessaloniki’s Makedonia Airport welcomed 702,200 passengers this June, up 11.4% year-on-year, while passenger traffic fell 3.1% to 266,300 people on Mykonos and in Santorini by 1.3% to about 412,000.
