Air arrivals from abroad rose 9 percent in 2016

International arrivals in Greece by road and air rose considerably last year from 2015, according to data from the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE).

Air arrivals from abroad increased 9 percent from 2015 to number 16.87 million in 2016. The SETE Institute made it clear that only Athens airport provided data on international arrivals which excluded people living in Greece, while the figures from other airports concerned all arrivals on international flights regardless of country of residence.

Road arrivals rose 0.6 percent to come to 12.04 million last year. This is based on the records of the local police stations, based on nationality and regardless of country of residence. It therefore includes immigrants in Greece who returned after traveling abroad.

Civil Aviation Authority figures released on Wednesday showed passenger traffic through all the country’s airports rose 9.9 percent year-on-year to 53.8 million, against 48.8 million in 2015. In total 461,161 flights were made last year (up 3.8 percent on 2015), of which 271,451 were international.