Athens is back! 2022 so far and a sneak peak in Winter 22/23
Athens International Airport at the largest meeting of the aviation industry “ROUTES WORLD 2022” which was held in Las Vegas between 16-18 October, with the votes of the airlines, won the first place in the highly competitive category of 10-17.5 million passengers
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
The first ten months of the year have been very busy for Athens International Airport with traffic performance on the rise, strong network developments and a series of numerous actions from the Airline Development & Marketing team.
Following 2 years under heavy travel restrictions due to the Pandemic, when Athens performed stronger among all major European airports, Summer 2022 and early indications for Winter 2022/2023 are clear signs of a gradual return to normality.
Strong Traffic performance
Passenger traffic started low, at -36% to 2019, during the first quarter of 2022, due to heavy travel restrictions and spikes of the Omicron variant at the time. However, recovery accelerated rapidly in Q2 at -10% and Q3 at -5%. Preliminary results for October 2022 indicate that traffic recovered even further, reaching in October at the 2019 levels ( Oct. 2022 at just -0.5% vs Oct. 2019 ). During the first 10 months of the year, passenger traffic surpassed 19.5mio, already surpassing the levels of 2021 by +58% and just -12% to same period in 2019.
Analytically domestic passenger traffic, managed to reach 2019 levels from June 2022 onwards and even surpassing 2019 in September +1.5% and October +4.6%. International traffic is still behind 2019, however closing the gap, with preliminary October performance achieving best recovery yet at just -2.6%. During Summer 2022, Athens was connected to 50 countries and 148 airport destinations (116 International and 32 Domestic) served by 66 airlines, offering Scheduled Passenger services.
In the International markets for nonstop services from Athens, Germany tops the list with 1,37mio passengers and USA is the best performing with 50% growth to same period 2019. In the TOP 20 positions, based on volumes, USA, Austria , Israel, Canada and France are already above 2019 levels, followed by 4 more at/or over 90%. In terms of Foreign arrivals (Tourism) PAX at 84% of 2019 levels, as 9 International markets improved performance compared to 2019 and 5 more surpassed 90% level.
Rebuilding the Network and beyond
The attractiveness of the City of Athens and the Country overall and the proven resilience of Athens market, is further evident by the high number of new developments secured and materialized during Summer 2022. In specific, Athens welcomed the addition of 6 new Destinations, 6 new Airlines and 39 additional services on existing routes. The importance of these developments are even more profound, taking into consideration the fact that many new additions were introduced even during the pandemic period.
Bilbao with Aegean and Volotea, Birmingham with Jet2.com, Boston with Delta, Florence with Aegean, Nis with AirSerbia and Turin with Volotea were all connected to Athens this Summer, while we had the pleasure to welcome Air Albania, Condor, Euroflyer, flyr, Jet2 and TUS Airways. In addition to the new destinations and airlines, Athens welcomed a large number of service resumptions with Aegean, Volotea, the return of Air Transat after 2 years of absence and many-many more.
USA is Athens TOP performing market in terms of passenger traffic recovery, as USA traffic surpassed 2019 by 50% (Jan – Oct). Boston is Athens 5th addition in the US market, during the last 3 years. Last Summer 2021 and prior to Boston, Athens welcomed New York (JFK) with American, Atlanta with Delta and Washington with United. With this latest development, for Summer 2022, Athens is connected to 7 airports in USA, serving 6 Cities, with non-stop services offered by 4 airlines, operating 63 weekly departures, ie. 9 daily departures. Strong developments in the US market are even more important for Athens, due to the fact that a wide-body equipment is required, as a minimum, to operate the service because of the range. For an airline to add a wide-body service to the Athens market, it means that the airline is confident that they can fill the seats; and they are !!. During the 3rd quarter of the year, all 3 US airlines (American, Delta and United) achieved impressive Load Factors from Athens, at an average of 96%, with some surpassing Q3 2019 performance.
As Winter 2022/2023 season just started, Delta Airlines will heavily invest in the market, as convinced by the strong demand and confirming a significant season extension of the very successful New York (JFK) service. Nonstop flights to New York (JFK) will continue till mid-January 2023 by Delta and will resume by early March 2023. Above services, will supplement the already highly successful Emirates year-round service to New York (EWR), operated since March 2017. In addition, Morocco will be reconnected to Athens again, after a long 22 months’ absence due to COVID-19 restrictions, with services offered by Aegean Airlines, from December 2022 to Marrakesh. Furthermore, Sky Express will add 3 more International destinations to its network with services to Munich, Milan and Sofia, while WizzAir will further build-up its presence in the Athens market, adding services from the 12th of December 2022 to Tirana and Tel-Aviv. The latter, will receive additional services by the Cypriot based operator, TUS Airways, offering services for the first time, between Athens and Tel-Aviv.
Supporting our airline partners
Athens International Airport remained committed in supporting airline partners during the difficult pandemic years by providing significant Discounts and Marketing support, as well as maintaining regular communication and constantly feeding the airlines with data, market survey findings and information.
During 2022 and despite strong recovery volumes, Athens International Airport continues to provide support to airline partners with the extension of the very successful and widely acknowledged Restart Incentive’s scheme, with the full utilization of traditional developmental incentives, as well as with enhanced Marketing Support and actions in promoting airlines in the local market.
Hard work and relationship with partners is acknowledged
Once again, at the largest meeting of the aviation industry “ROUTES WORLD 2022” which was held in Las Vegas between 16-18 October, Athens airport, with the votes of the airlines, won the first place in the highly competitive category of 10-17.5 million passengers. The Airport Awards highlight the organizations, which have excelled and lead the way in marketing strategy, route development marketing, building close and constructive airport-airline relations, being innovative in their approach.
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