Athens International Airport: More international flights offered by foreign carriers in the summer
15-Mar-2011 Despite the continued adverse financial conditions prevailing in the Greek economy, foreign carriers continued their development out of Athens International Airport, by a 7% increase in their scheduled international services during the summer period (25.03.11 – 27.10.11).
In the summer period 2011, a total of 65 airlines will be offering 944 scheduled weekly flights to 77 international destinations (82 airports), in 49 countries.
Analytically, the airport's "new arrivals":
- 8 new airlines will be operating scheduled flights to/from Athens International Airport:
TAP Air Portugal, Jetairfly, Belle Air, Transavia Netherlands, while Air China, Rossiya Airlines, Sun Express, and Air One are re-launching services out of Athens.
- 6 new destinations are added to Athens International Airport's network:
Lisbon (TAP Air Portugal), Beijing (Air China), Bologna (Aegean Airlines), Pisa (Air One), Edinburgh (easyJet), and Dubrovnik (Croatia Airlines)
- and 8 new airports:
Lisbon Portela (TAP), Charleroi (Jetairfly), Edinburgh Airport (easyJet), Aeroporto di Bologna (Aegean Airlines), Beijing Capital International Airport (Air China), Domodedovo (Aegean Airlines), Galileo Galilei (Air One), and Oslo Gardemoen (Norwegian)
- airlines already operating at Athens International Airport adding new destinations:
For the summer period 2011, new destinations were added to the schedule of Aegean Airlines (Bologna and Moscow), Olympic Air (Belgrade), Air Malta (Sofia), easyJet (Edinburgh) and Croatia (Dubrovnik).
- Additional frequencies in existing destinations:
Aegean Airlines added in its daily schedule 2 additional frequencies to Paris and London, and 1 additional flight to Rome and Brussels. Olympic Air added 9 weekly frequencies to Tirana and 2 to Amsterdam. Brussels Airlines and SAS doubled their weekly frequencies by adding one additional flight to Brussels and Copenhagen respectively, while Swiss increased its daily frequencies to Geneva and Zurich. Middle East Airlines' service to Beirut is becoming daily and Air Canada increases the number of its weekly frequencies to Toronto, from 3 to 4. In addition, 10 more airlines increased their frequencies from/to Athens International Airport.
13 low cost airlines connecting Athens to 20 European destinations
Another feature of the Summer 2011 timetable, is the 14.2% increase in the flights operated by low cost carriers at Athens International Airport, compared to the respective period in 2010. In the coming summer period, 13 low cost carriers will be connecting Athens to 20 European destinations; among them, newcomers Transavia Netherlands and Jetairfly. The low cost market represents 10% of Athens International Airport's international passenger traffic and 25-30% of the total market share of foreign carriers operating at Athens International Airport.
Special seasonal support programme for the period November 2010 - May 2011
Athens International Airport, in response to the adverse economic situation in the Greek market, continues to implement consistently its route development and airline support strategy, and extends through May 2011 the special support programme in force since June 2010. This programme supports carriers with an increase in their passenger traffic to international destinations - by subsidizing airlines for every additional passenger - for the period June 2010-May 2011, compared to last year's respective period.
In addition, the airport, in consideration of the intense political turmoil in the N. Africa region, currently supports the carriers operating scheduled services out of Athens towards the specific destinations.