AEGEAN growth shows tourist season is expanding

Greek airline group AEGEAN and Olympic Air reported a 10 per cent growth in passenger traffic in November 2018, welcoming 969,000 passengers on board its flights.

Passenger growth was mainly driven by international travellers, with the group carrying 555,000 passengers, an increase of 18 per cent compared to November 2017.

Passenger traffic in the domestic network remained at the previous year’s levels, despite the operation of five other carriers active in the domestic market (three Greek and two foreign carriers), given AEGEAN’s fare promotional activities as well as supporting connecting traffic.

AEGEAN’s international traffic from Athens grew by 15 per cent, with the group operating a number of routes or the first time during the winter season. The routes and frequencies mainly involved France, Italy and Germany – to cities such as Nice, Marseilles, Bologna, Basle, Venice and Catania – and contributed to the extension of the tourist season in Greece.

Regional growth

The airline acknowledged that one of the highlights was that international traffic out of regional bases grew by 30 per cent in November 2018, with the carrier operating a number of direct flights during the winter season for the second consecutive year. These included from Heraklion, Crete to 11 destinations in Germany, France, Austria, Sweden and Norway, in co-operation with German tour operators. These routes will continue until April 2019.

Dimitris Gerogiannis, CEO of AEGEAN, said: “Extending the tourist season in our country is crucial and requires investment in hotel accommodation, infrastructure and services, which could support also local employment.

“AEGEAN contributes to this effort by investing in its network expansion during the winter season at a cost. However, to ensure the effective results, coordinated efforts by the state and all interested parties in the sector are required.”