Omicron braked the movement of ‘El. Venizelos’ in January

The upheavals brought to air travel by the appearance of the Omicron mutation are shown by the passenger traffic data of “El. Venizelos” for January. However, it seems that the effects of Omicron will be temporary as more flights are already expected in the coming weeks.

The passenger traffic of Athens International Airport in the first month of the year amounted to 772,700 passengers, recording a slight slowdown in the growing series recorded in the last seven months. The first month of the year, which is traditionally not one of the strongest, was also the first month since last June and during which the passenger traffic at the largest airport in the country did not exceed 1 million passengers.

Passengers this year more than doubled compared to January 2021 (+ 231.2%), but the growth rate is much lower than in previous months (November and December), where performance was three times higher than a year ago.

It is worth noting that in January 2020, and while the coronavirus pandemic had not yet appeared in Europe, the AIA had registered 1.47 million passengers. That is twice as many as those trafficked this year. Compared to 2019, domestic traffic in January 2022 was reduced by 36.3%, while international passenger traffic was reduced by 48.4%.

Flight recovery

The slowdown in passenger traffic recovery was more or less expected due to the Omicron mutation. The market, however, is still optimistic as even the most conservative forecasts estimate that after the first quarter of the year the recovery rates will accelerate and it is not excluded that during the summer season we will approach the 2019 figures, provided of course that there will be new problems or some new coronavirus mutation.

Already at flight level, according to the latest report by the European Aviation Safety Agency (Eurocontrol) on traffic developments at European airports, over the next six weeks, ie until 20 March 2022, the average number of flights will be is gradually increasing for the three largest airports in the country, in Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraklion.

More specifically, “El. Venizelos” from 343 flights this week will reach 407 in mid-March. 82 flights are planned for the airport “Macedonia” this week, which will gradually increase to 102 in six weeks.

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