Air seat schedules for September and October are showing strong momentum for an increase of international travelers to Greece.
Overall, across all Greek airports for the September-October period, the scheduling of available seats by airlines for travel from abroad to Greece shows an increase of 4.7% based on the Airdata tracker.
Given that airlines consistently and naturally aim for – and to a large extent achieve – high occupancy rates on their flights, and that the seat data are recent, experts are talking about an acceleration in the growth of Greek tourism in the second half compared to the first, when, according to data from the Bank of Greece, incoming travel traffic increased by just 0.6% and amounted to 11.692 million travelers, compared to 11.625 million in the first half of last year.
During these two months (September and October), airlines predict an increase of 11.8% in demand for travel to Thessaloniki, highlighting the Macedonian metropolis as the fastest growing destination this year. From the beginning of the year to July, Makedonia Airport, which is a gateway for both travelers visiting the city for a city break and those heading to destinations in Halkidiki, received 9.3% more international arrivals than the corresponding seven-month period last year.
A strong performance is expected in September and October for Athens as well, with the increase in scheduled airline seats reaching 6%, according to data from the Airdata tracker of the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation (INSETE). This increase in the capital comes after the 9.5% rise in international arrivals at Athens International Airport to 4.9 million from the beginning of the year to July.
Besides Athens and Thessaloniki, there is also strong momentum in the available airline seats planned on incoming flights from abroad to Iraklio (up 5.1% year-on-year), Hania (4.9%) and Corfu (8.9%) for September and October. Kalamata further shows an increase of 10.6%.
Nevertheless, Santorini is showing an annual decrease of 16.3%.