With a total of 16.5 million passengers, 2007 was another record-breaking year for Athens International Airport, posting an impressive 10% increase on a year-to-year basis (15.1 million passengers in 2006). The number of flights also enjoyed an 8% rise, for the first time surpassing the 200,000 flights threshold (205,294 flights against 190,872 in 2006).

10 new destinations / 15 new airlines

By adding 10 new destinations (Philadelphia, Beijing, Timisoara, Kaliningrad, Jeddah, Riyadh, Riga, Goteborg, Lviv and Mariupol), Athens International Airport in 2007 offered direct scheduled services to 116 destinations in 50 countries, by 70 airlines. Last year, Athens International Airport welcomed 15 new airlines (Aer Lingus, Air Baltic, Air China, Carpatair, Centralwings, Clickair, Continental Airlines, Finnair, Ilyich-Avia, KDavia, Kras Air, MyΑir, Saudi Arabian Airlines, US Airways and Vueling Airlines).

This robust development, bringing Athens International Airport among the fastest growing European airports, relates to the airport’s strategic developmental goals for 2007:

• development / increase of long haul services to the U.S.A. and the Far East markets (US Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta, Olympic Airlines, and Air China)
• dynamic growth of 19 low cost airlines which last year connected Athens with 31 European destinations (among them, 7 “newcomers”: Aer Lingus, Air Baltic, Centralwings, Clickair, KDavia, MyΑir and Vueling Airlines)
• strong regional development of the Eastern Europe markets, mainly Russia

Domestic / International

In 2007, the domestic market climbed by 9%, posting an all-time record with 6 million passengers. International traffic also grew significantly by 10%, for the first time exceeding 10 million passengers.

The international sector enjoyed high levels of increase in all international markets. Analytically, Western Europe, the airport’s largest market, enjoyed a +7.7%, mainly driven by additional services offered by Aegean Airlines, Iberia, SAS, and low cost airlines. To be noted that all other international markets achieved double-digit increase. Eastern Europe was the fastest growing region in 2007 with a 23.2% rise, reaching 1 million passengers. North America followed closely (+23.1%), while Middle East also posted a double digit increase of 15.1%.

Tourist traffic: foreign tourists up by 18%

For another year, following the results of a daily survey conducted at Athens International Airport, tourism traffic recorded an increase driven by the continuous growth of the low cost market and the strong development of the USA and Eastern Europe markets. In 2007, the number of foreign tourists visiting Athens and the greater region, rose to 2.3 million, marking a +18% compared to 2006.

Commenting on the airport’s traffic results, the CEO of Athens International Airport, Dr. Yiannis Paraschis, stated: “2007 was a very good year for our airport, which enjoyed a 10% traffic increase in its passenger traffic, well above the +5.6% average growth recorded by the major European airports. Our developmental strategy, combined with the resurgence of Athens and Greece as an attractive tourist destination, led us again to a very positive end of year outcome. We would like to express our warmest appreciation to all our partners for their contribution to one more year of dynamic growth and smooth operation for Athens International Airport”.