“Eleftherios Venizelos” International Airport is gradually recovering its momentum. For October, passenger traffic at Athens airport jumped almost to 2019 levels, down just 0.5% from that record year, confirming that Athens is picking up pace again after the outbreak of the pandemic.

The vote of confidence from US and Canadian carriers, who further increased their presence in Athens in 2022, the six new airline arrivals and the return of connections, such as to Addis Ababa and Singapore, are indicative of the strong recovery for Athens’ airport.

The first ten months

This is also reflected in passenger traffic during the first ten months of 2022, which reached 19.5 million passengers. However, it remained 12.2% lower compared to 2019, but since the beginning of the summer, until today, it is gradually recovering the lost ground, limiting losses below 10%.

Domestic passengers remained in the ten months below 2019 levels by 6.2%. Lower is the return rate of international passengers, which remained at -14.9%, compared to 2019.  In October, for the second month in a row, domestic traffic exceeded 2019 levels, by 4.6%.

In terms of flights, October was the first month that flights slightly improved from 2019, recording 92 more flights. Cumulatively, for the first ten months of the year, the number of flights amounted to 184,495, recording a decrease of 6.2% compared to 2019. Domestic flights exceeded 2019 levels (+1.8%), while respectively, international flights remained reduced by 12%.

Characteristic of the dynamics that Athens has developed as a gateway for Greek tourism, but also as a city break destination, is the fact that the planned places from abroad for “Eleftherios Venizelos” in 2022 reach 92% of the levels of 2019. Overall correspond to 9.64 million available seats. Traditional markets for Athens, such as the UK, USA, Germany, France, Italy and Cyprus, remain at the top.

First signs for 2023

The first samples for 2023 are already positive, fueled by this year’s extremely successful performance of Greek tourism. The British group Jet2, one of the new arrivals of 2022, has announced that it will strengthen its summer2023 itinerary. Accordingly, low-cost, easy Jet, will add more flights both to Athens and Chania.

Indicative of the image that the destination “Athens” is rebuilding is the restart at the end of October of WizzAir flights connecting Luton and Athens, while from mid-December the airline will fly from Athens to Tirana and Tel Aviv. It seems that Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, has also decided to strengthen its presence in the Greek capital, as well as in popular destinations.

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