Athens International Airport breaks 4mln passengers barrier in the first quarter 2018

For yet another month, Athens International Airport, “El. Venizelos” recorded a powerful traffic increase. According to published AIA’s published statistics, March 2018 ended with an overall increase of 10.4%, reaching 1.52mln passengers.

An important additional statistic is that for the very first time in the years of the airport’s operation, foreign passengers in March exceeded the threshold of 1mln passengers (reaching 1,045mln), crashing last year’s recored (879k).

Although domestic passengers fell by 4.4%, due to reduced interior flights’ seats, international passengers continued their upward streak by 18.9%, contributing significantly in the final result. What we observe here is the consolidation of the trend regarding the drop in domestic flights’ traffic, which, according to market specialists, can be attributed to the reductions on the itineraries to Chania and Thessaloniki airports.

Overall, during the first quarter of 2018, the airport’s traffic reached 4mln passengers, recording an increase by 8%, with the domestic traffic dropping (-5.5%) and the foreign traffic showing a strong growth momentum (+15.9%). It is worth mentioning that “El.Venizelos” breaks the barrier of 4mln passengers in 3 months for the first time, suggesting that the coming months with peak of the touristic season will be even stronger.

Nikos Karagiannis-ypodomes.com

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