The Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) has recently revealed that during the first four months of this year, passenger arrivals at Greek airports showed a positive increase of 7.4 per cent compared to pre-pandemic figures and 38.4 per cent more than last year.
Between January and April 2023, Greek airports registered a total of 11,202,130 passengers compared to 8,096,732 in the same period of 2022 and 10,430,244 in 2019, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The data provided by HCAA also shows that last month passenger traffic increased by 20.3 per cent or to 4,325,061 compared to April of last year when a total of 3,595,123 arrivals were recorded. At the same time, passenger traffic in Greece increased by 15.5 per cent or to 3,745,671 arrivals compared to the figures achieved in 2019.
According to flight data, during April, arrivals and departures reached 36,596 compared to 34,400 in 2022 and 33,727 in 2019. As a result, air traffic also recorded an increase of 6.4 per cent compared to a year ago and 8.5 per cent in 2019.
In addition, from January to April, a total of 102,274 flights were performed, which is more than in 2022 and 2019, during which years were operated 92,563 and 99,164 flights, respectively. During the same period, traffic has also increased by 10.5 per cent over 2022 and by 3.1 per cent compared to 2019.
The Greek Airports, which include Athens International Airport (AIA), 24 regional airports managed by HCAA and another 14 under the management of Fraport Greece, have altogether exceeded pre-pandemic levels in April, handling a total of 1.6 million passengers.
Further data from HCAA reveals that even Athens International Airport (AIA) saw its total passenger traffic increase by 7.6 per cent or 2.1 million passengers compared to 2019.
Previously, Greek Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias noted that in January of this year Athens Airport surpassed the figures of 2019, registering a total of 1.45 million passengers, which represents an increase of 87.2 per cent compared to January 2022 and a growth of five per cent compared to the period before the pandemic.
Meanwhile, based on Fraport’s 2022 travel traffic data, Greece’s regional airports welcomed a total of 31 million passengers.
Greece is one of the destinations that flourished most in Europe last year in terms of tourism traffic, while the country expects that even this summer season will record even more positive numbers.
According to the country’s Minister of Tourism, Vasilis Kikilias, despite the fact that the country had almost the highest growth in tourism in Europe last year, he expects Greece’s performance in 2023 to increase from ten per cent to 20 per cent.