According to the latest statistics, international arrivals are increased 14.6% at major airports (+18.0% ytd), and 8.4% increase at international road arrivals (+3.1% ytd). The SETE Intelligence’s July 2018 Monthly Statistical Bulletin shows most popular Greek destinations and busiest airports in the country in the first half of 2018.
The increased arrivals are reflected in the Bank of Greece Frontier Survey, with incoming traffic in May up by +23.6%, compared to May 2017, and travel receipts up by +34.7%. The ytd corresponding changes are +16.8% and +21.7% respectively. In other words, there was a marked increase in Average Spend which also influenced positively Average Spend ytd.
The rise in international airport arrivals continues across the country also in June 2018. The statistics shows that international arrivals in June 2018 were up by +14.6% (+403,000), compared to June 2017.
This increase relates mainly to regional airports (+11.7%/+263,000 passengers). Athens was up +27.0%/+140,000 passengers and Thessaloniki +9.9%/+24,000 passenger respectively. A large increase in terms of differences was noted in the airports of Corfu +44,000/+18.7%, Heraklion +38,000/+7.5% and Rhodes +34,000/+9.3%. The largest percentage increase is seen at Lesvos Airport, with +51.9%/+4,000.
In terms of destinations for June 2018, the Dodecanese showed an increase of +11.3%/+64,000, Crete showed an increase of +7.7%/+54,000 and the Ionian +14.9%/+71,000 passengers. An increase was also seen in the Cyclades (+23.6%/+31,000) and the Peloponnese (+17.6%/+7,000).
For the period January-June 2018, 7.7 million international airport arrivals were recorded, presenting an increase of +18.0%. Regional airports showed an increase of +15.8%/+726,000 passengers and Athens showed an increase of +23.1%/+449,000. A large increase in terms of differences was noted at the airports of Heraklion +138,000/+13.1%, Corfu +99,000/+23.8% and Rhodes +95,000/+13.7%.
The largest percentage increase was noted at Kavala airport +94.6%/+36,000 since, for a long period of time, due to the reconstruction works underway at Macedonia Airport, followed by Lesvos airport, with an increase of +50.7%/+6,700 arrivals.
In terms of destinations, the Cyclades showed an increase of +31.3%/+70,000, the Ionian +19.7%/+163,000 and the Dodecanese +16.3%/+169,000 Finally, Crete was up +12.6%/+183,000 and the Peloponnese +15.2%/+9,700.
The rise in domestic airport arrivals continued across the country in June 2018. Specifically, a +4.3% increase was recorded, compared to June 2017, according to the data available from the country’s major airports, recording 804,000 airport arrivals, compared to 771,000 in June 2017.
June’s increase is mainly due to the increase at the AIA (+6.8%/+45,000). The largest percentage increase (+27.1%/+6,900) in June was at Paros Airport. The largest percentage decrease was seen at Kalamata airport, -43.3%/-928 passengers, followed by Chania airport, -39.5%/-13,000 passengers.
In terms of destinations, in June 2018, the destinations in the Cyclades saw an increase of +13.6%/+15,000, and those in the Ionian by +4.6%/+1,000. The remaining destinations showed a decrease: Dodecanese -3.6%/-2,000 and Crete -8.3%/-7,400.
During the January-June 2018 period domestic air traffic recorded a marginal increase of +1.4%/+48,000 passengers. The Athens International Airport saw an increase of +2.8%/+46,000 passengers. Regional airports marked a marginal increase of +0.1%/+2,000 passengers. Thessaloniki saw a drop of -9.6%/-56,000 passengers. This drop is also due to the fact that a large portion of the flights to/from Thessaloniki were directed to Kavala airport due to the reconstruction work underway at Macedonia Airport.
In terms of destinations, in the first half of 2018, the Dodecanese were up by +1.4%/+3,700 passengers, the Ionian by +11.9%/+11,000, and the Cyclades +11.0%/+36,000. Crete saw a marginal drop of -2.2%/-10,000, entirely due to Chania airport, which recorded a large drop of -23.5%/-50,000 passengers, as opposed to Heraklion airport which saw an increase of +15.1%/+39,000.
