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Athens Airport June Traffic Nears Pre-Covid Levels
Posted On 06 Jul 2022
Tag: Athens International Airport (AIA), Aviation Event, Aviation-Event 2022 ATH conference, c9967c, Covid-19 impact Greece, economy, Greece economy, Greece investments, Greece tourism ministry, Greece tourism policy, Greece tourism strategy, H1 air passenger traffic Greece, June 2022 passenger traffic Greece, June AIA figures, tourism and travel, tourism and travel Greece, Vassilis Kikilias
Athens International Airport (archive photo)
Athens International Airport (AIA) nearly touched pre-pandemic passenger figures in June reaching 2.43 million in total, still down by 6.8 percent compared to the same month in 2019, it said.
According to AIA data released this week, the number of domestic passengers also picked up pace fast approaching 2019 levels and down by only 0.6 percent against record year 2019.
International air arrivals, meanwhile, were still down by 9.6 percent over 2019.
In June, however, the number of domestic flights was up 3.3 percent over June 2019 with international flights still down by 8.5 percent compared to pre-pandemic 2019.
Overall, in the first half of the year, AIA passenger traffic came to nearly 9 million, down by 20.3 percent on respective 2019 levels.
Source: Athens International Airport
The number of domestic passengers in the first six months of the year was down by 13.2 percent compared to the same period in 2019 while the number of international arrivals was also 23.5 percent short of 2019 levels.
In the H1, AIA handled a total of 91,368 flights down by 9.5 percent over 2019.
Data shows declines in both domestic and international flight figures compared to 2019. The number of domestic flights was down by 0.9 percent and international flights by 15.8 percent.
Source: Athens International Airport
Speaking during the recent “Aviation-Event 2022 ATH” conference, Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias expressed his satisfaction with AIA performance, adding that he estimates tourists will be visiting Greece into December.
“We are particularly pleased to see that tourist arrivals to Greece started very early this year and indicate that there will be a particular momentum until the end of November and the beginning of December,” he said, adding that the ministry had taken actions to increase the number of flights from the US and was now in similar negotiations with airlines in India, South Korea and in Latin American countries.
I’m not sure this is good news. However, our experience of AIA at the end of June was pretty appalling. Travelling on Transavia to Paris, we left from the “annex” terminal. It took ages to get there (accessible only on foot), and the absence of shops, anything resembling a view, and decent eateries make this terminal an extremely dull and disappointing experience ! If it helps to improve AIA’s statistics, it doesn’t help to improve its image !