Air passenger data fly high

Greek airports are enjoying another year of growth in passenger traffic, which came to an impressive 10.3 percent in the first six months of 2017, according to official data. Athens airport has also recorded a notable rise, helped by the increase in flights.

Over the January-June period the country’s airports saw passenger traffic reach 21.947 million and the number of flights come to 192,396, up 0.6 percent on the 191,204 flights that used Greece’s airports in the first half of 2016. At the same time, the country’s main airport posted an 8.3 percent annual increase in passengers, coming to 9.4 million.

In June alone Athens welcomed 2.168 million passengers, followed by Iraklio in Crete (1.08 million), Rhodes (784,500), Thessaloniki (650,000) and Corfu (471,500). The international network saw a 15.8 percent annual rise in passengers last month, while the domestic network reported an increase of 8.7 percent. Total traffic in June amounted to 7.36 million passengers, up 14.1 percent from June 2016.

Last month there were 4.2 percent more flights in the country’s airports than a year earlier, amounting to 58,429 in total, of which 19,884 were domestic flights and 38,545 were international flights. This comes with the increase in services by major international carriers using the Athens airport, which boost flights and passenger numbers. plot could host a ‘type B’ airport with a runway up to 1,500 meters long and 50 meters wide, plus a small passenger terminal of 3,000 sq.m. to cater for 70-80 passengers per flight. Such an airport could serve even medium-sized aircraft such as an Airbus A318.