Foreign airlines crowded the Greek airwaves

The Aegean Sea, which occupies the largest share in Greek air transport, this summer has the largest aviation program in its history, with 18 million seats offered.

with the Tourist arrivals It is estimated that they will set a new record this summer, breaking the previous record of 2019, Foreign Airlines Strengthening their presence in the Greek market. These are not last-minute decisions, given that at the beginning of the year, flights on the Greek airwaves exceeded those of 2019, when the epidemic had not yet emerged. The demand explosion is also shown by the fact that Aegeanwhich occupies the largest share in Greek air transport, this summer has the largest flight schedule in its history, with 18 million offered seats.

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

Low-cost airline Pegasus will connect Istanbul with Rhodes and Mytilini, twice a week, via Sabiha Gökçen Airport from June 1. From June 14, regular flights to Athens and Mykonos, twice a week, will be operated by Kuwait Airways. These two Greek destinations were chosen by the airline “after a comprehensive study based on sustainability and profitability,” Kuwait Airways General Manager Mueen Razzouqi said in the past. Athens and Seoul are also connected by Korean Air, through 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 is looking to attract even a small part of them.

Standard flights to Greece on British Jet2, TUI has already increased the seats on offer for 2024.

The goal is to create a regular flight between Seoul and Athens, which, according to market players, requires at least 100,000 arrivals and departures each year.

At the same time, players who are constantly present in the Greek market are expanding their presence. They include the TUI tourism group which has already increased by 250,000 seats on offer to and from Greece for summer 2024, and operates 144 flights per week via TUIfly. According to TUI, the highest demand for Greece traditionally comes from England and Germany, which is also confirmed by passenger traffic data for the 14 largest airports in the region. Last April, the total number of arrivals and departures from the UK and Germany, respectively, was nearly half a million.

The largest flight program in its history for Greece was established this year by the British airline Jet2, linked to the travel agency Jet2holidays, which provides more than 400,000 seats to and from the South Aegean Islands, twice the number compared to 2019 Athens, Kos and Dublin are linked to the Irish airline “Air Lingus”. By four and two flights per week, respectively, as this year the number of flights to and from “El Venizelos” airport increased. As for the Aegean Sea, which occupies a market share of about 50%, it is operating this summer with 76 aircraft in 46 countries, with 264 routes to 161 destinations from eight bases.

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

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