2019 was ‘reminisced’ by this year’s August at Athens airport: At -5% passenger traffic

By Fotis Fotinos

The performance of 2019 in the peak months of the tourist season (June – August) was approached by Athens airport.

After June’s -6.8% and July’s -5.1%, August – according to provisional data – appears to close at almost -5% compared to August 2019, revealing the dynamics (and) of Athens this year’s tourist season.

The performances of the summer season of the Athens airport, but also of the rest of the Greek airports, acquire additional dynamics, given the “loss” of passengers, in relation to 2019, from markets / countries, such as Russia, Ukraine, China, Moldova and Belarus.

For Athens airport, aggregated statistics are available up to July. During July, passenger traffic stood at 2.83 million, down 5.1% on July 2019 traffic.
In fact, domestic passenger traffic, which reached 0.91 million, approached the levels of 2019, recording a slight drop of 0.3%.

Accordingly, international passenger traffic, which amounted to 1.91 million, showed a single-digit decrease of 7.2%, compared to 2019.

In total, during the first seven months of the year, the passenger traffic of Athens Airport reached 11.8 million and remained reduced by 17.1% compared to 2019.

Domestic passengers remained below 2019 levels by 10.5% (3.93 million) and international passengers by 20% respectively (7.87 million).

The performance of Fraport Greece’s 14 airports up to July

Positive messages are also exported from the 14 regional airports of Fraport Greece, which in June and July exceeded the performance of 2019.

In July, passenger traffic at Fraport Greece’s airports reached 5.91 million compared to 5.32 million in July 2019, an increase of 11.1%.

An increase compared to 2019 was also noted in June (+3.3%), “anticipating” July’s performance.

At the level of 7 months (January – July), the performance of 2019 was almost equalized, as 16.21 million passengers were transported compared to 16.25 million passengers in the corresponding period of 2019, i.e. a decrease of only 0.2%.

As mentioned above, in July the 14 regional airports of Fraport Greece handled 5.91 million passengers, marking an increase of 11.1% compared to 2019 and 64.8% compared to last year.

Compared to July 2019, several important tourist destinations outperformed, such as Santorini with a 36.2% increase in passengers, Mykonos with 16.6%, Rhodes with 10.4%, Skiathos with 16.5% , Chania with 20.8%, Kefalonia with 12.3%, Corfu with 20.7% and Zakynthos with 8.8%.

On the contrary, a drop in passengers compared to July 2019 was presented by Thessaloniki with 9.6%, Kavala with 12.8%, Mytilini with 13.3% and Samos with 6.8%.

Accordingly, in the period January – July, the 14 regional airports of Fraport Greece handled 16.21 million passengers, marking a marginal decrease of 0.2% compared to the corresponding period of 2019, but a large increase of 169.5% compared to corresponding period last year.

Compared to the 7th month of 2019, several airports showed an increase in passenger traffic, such as Santorini with 12.2%, Mykonos with 8.7%, Skiathos with 10.2%, Rhodes with 4.4%, Chania with 6.4%, Corfu with 10.7%, Kefalonia with 2.9% and Zakynthos with 2%.

Conversely, airports such as Thessaloniki with 18.4%, Kavala with 24.5%, Mytilini with 14.4% and Samos with 8.1% saw a decrease.