During the 9-month period January to September 2005, Athens International Airport continued its positive traffic development, enjoying a considerable passenger increase of +6.5% vs. 2004.

The airport’s traffic reached 11.2 million passengers, mostly driven by international passengers (+9.0% compared to 2004), whereas domestic traffic grew by +2.3%. The significant increase in international traffic is attributed to the healthy performance of scheduled traffic (+8.7%), in combination with the boom of charter traffic (+23.2%). As a result of this successful performance, Athens International Airport remains among Europe’s fastest growing major airports (over 10 million passengers annually).

The overall favourable traffic evolution of the airport during the period January through September was strengthened by the positive passenger traffic development observed during the 3rd quarter, during which AIA welcomed 4.6 million passengers, 5% up compared to the period July-September of the “Olympic year 2004”. It is worth noting that, during the peak summer months July and August, the domestic market enjoyed a strong growth of +7.8% and +9.0%, respectively.

Continuing their strong performance since the beginning of the year, airlines experienced a significant improvement of their load factors, which accelerated during the 3rd quarter. Overall, in the period July-September, international load factors were consistently above 80%, reaching a peak in July (81.4%). The most impressive load factors were observed in North America, surpassing 90%, while Western Europe and the Far East also enjoyed load factors above 80%.