WITH tourist arrivals it is expected that this summer they will set a new record, breaking the previous record of 2019, foreign Airlines strengthen its presence in the Greek market. These are not the last decisions, given that already at the beginning of the year, the number of flights on Greek air exceeded the number of flights in 2019, when the pandemic had not yet manifested itself. The explosion in demand is also evidenced by the fact that Aegean Seaholding the largest share of Greek air travel, this summer has the largest flight schedule in its history, with seats on offer reaching 18 million.

The total capacity offered is much larger, also due to the overcrowding of foreign airlines on Greek airwaves, which offer dozens of scheduled and charter flights. The (indicative) list of foreign carriers includes Air Astana from Kazakhstan, which from June will link Heraklion with Almaty, the largest city in the Central Asian country, with four flights a week lasting from five and a half to six and a half hours. 1.

Budget airline Pegasus will connect Istanbul with Rhodes and Mytilini twice a week via Sabiha Gokcen Airport from 1 June. From June 14, scheduled flights to Athens and Mykonos twice a week will be operated by Kuwait Airways. The two Greek destinations were chosen by the airline “after careful consideration based on viability and profitability,” according to what Kuwait Airways managing director Maen Razuki previously mentioned. Athens and Seoul are also linked by Korean Air charter flights, which have been suspended for two years due to the pandemic crisis. Korea has a population of 52 million, of which 26 million travel abroad every year, and Greece aims to attract at least a small fraction of them.

Record flights to Greece on British Jet2, TUI has already increased the number of seats offered for 2024.

The goal is to establish a regular air service between Seoul and Athens, which, according to market participants, requires at least 100,000 arrivals and departures per year.

At the same time, players with a stable presence in the Greek market are expanding their presence. These include the travel group TUI, which has already increased by 250,000 seats offered to and from Greece for the summer of 2024, operating 144 flights a week through TUIfly. According to TUI, the largest demand for Greece traditionally comes from England and Germany, which is also confirmed by the data on passenger traffic at the 14 largest airports in the region. In April last year, the total number of arrivals and departures from the UK and Germany, respectively, reached about half a million people.

This year, UK-based airline Jet2, affiliated with travel agency Jet2holidays, developed the largest flight program for Greece in its history, offering more than 400,000 seats to and from the South Aegean islands, doubling the number in 2019. Athens and Kos and Dublin are connected by Irish airline Aer Lingus with four and two flights a week respectively, increasing the frequency of flights to and from El Airport this year. Venizelos.” As for Aegean, which has a market share of about 50%, this summer it has 76 aircraft in 46 countries, 264 routes to 161 destinations from eight bases.

The airline offers a total of 18 million seats, of which 11 million are overseas, up 2 million and 800,000 compared to 2022 and 2019, respectively. 16 new international destinations, 25 new direct international routes, as well as four new countries (Morocco, Kuwait, Latvia and Azerbaijan) have been added to its network, as well as significantly increased frequencies on existing routes.

Aegean routes for the next few days: from Athens to Newcastle, Valencia and Eindhoven, from Thessaloniki to Barcelona, ​​Nuremberg, Cologne, Hannover and Venice, from Heraklion to Vienna and Marseille and from Rhodes to Belgrade. In addition to adding regular flights, including to the UK (Birmingham, Newcastle and Bristol), Slovakia (Bratislava), France (Lille), Spain (Seville), the airline also operates charter flights to new destinations. These include Bremen, Malmö and Gothenburg, Burgas and Timisoara.