Passenger Traffic, Flights on Steady Rise at Athens Airport

Travelers at Athens International Airport (AIA). Photo: Shutterstock

Athens International Airport (AIA) is set to continue its positive performance and even exceed pre-Covid 2019 levels in 2023.

According to data released by travel data provider OAG and analyzed by INSETE, the Greek Tourism Confederation’s (SETE) research body, a total of 10,945 million seats at the moment are scheduled for AIA this year, a 3 percent increase over 2019 and a 13 percent rise over 2022.

The top market in terms of seats for AIA is the UK, which marked a 17 percent increase over 2022 and a 19 percent rise compared to 2019, accounting for 1.09 million seats compared to 2022. Italy follows with 1.03 million seats, an 18 percent increase compared to last year, and in third place Germany with 1.01 million seats and a 5 percent increase over 2022. The Top 10 source markets in terms of seat planning for Greece this year include France, Cyprus, the US, Turkey, Spain, Israel and Switzerland.

Athens Airport: 2023 initial figures set a positive pace

Speaking during an event in Athens, AIA’s CEO, Yiannis Paraschis, said passenger traffic for the first months of 2023 is “completely different” than it was during the same period in 2022 as this year we have no travel restrictions due to pandemic.

Athens International Airport CEO Yiannis Paraschis (center) commenting on passenger traffic for 2023 during a recent event in Athens.

“Right now, the situation is much better than it was in 2022, especially at this time as we don’t have travel restrictions… We are currently a little over 2019 numbers, so this is extremely positive,” he said, adding that domestic travel is also very strong this year.

According to Athens Airport’s available data on flight and passenger traffic during January and February, international tourist arrivals increased by 4.3 percent over the same period in 2019, showing a positive trend for the year ahead.

In February, a total of 1.36 million passengers went through AIA, up by 62.4 percent over the same month in 2022 and by 2.3 percent over pre-Covid 2019. The number of international passengers exceeded 2019 volumes by 3.6 percent.

AIA handled 1.45 million passengers in January marking an 87.2 percent increase over the same month in 2022.

Overall, in the first two months of 2023, AIA passenger traffic came to 2.8 million, up by 74.3 percent over 2022 and by 3.1 percent over 2019.

Moreover, the number of flights through AIA during the first two months of the year came to 26,303 up by 24.8 percent over respective 2022 levels and by 1.7 percent compared to corresponding 2019 levels.

In January, airport traffic through Greece’s airports surpassed both 2022 and pre-Covid 2019 levels for the same month with AIA, the 24 airports run by the HCAA and the country’s 14 regional airports managed by Fraport Greece handling a total of 2,202,735 passengers (arrivals and departures) compared to 1,249,387 in January 2022 and 2,135,674 in 2019, up by 76.3 percent rise over last year and a 3.1 percent against 2019.

Flight activity through Greece’s airports was also up by 21.7 percent in January compared to the same month in 2022 to 22,176 flights from 18,218.