Over 1.6 million airline seats in April
Even the country’s smallest airports opened for international flights, with visitors from over 50 countries coming for their holidays.
All the country’s airports have opened and are welcoming tourists from all over the world, marking the substantial opening of the 2023 summer season.
From Easter Monday, flights also started landing at the last regional airports, such as those of Karpathos, Skiathos, Mytilini and Samos.
Over 1.6 million international flight seats are scheduled from the beginning to the end of April, coming from over 50 countries around the world.
The 850,000 seats pertain to the Athens airport, with the British over 100,000, the Germans over 80,000, while the Americans are moving dynamically, arriving in the capital with more than 8,000 direct flights per week.
Second, with a slight difference from third, is the airport of Thessaloniki with 215,000 scheduled seats from abroad.
Throughout April, Heraklion is expected to welcome 200,000 tourists who come mainly from Germany, Britain and France.
There are flights to Crete from 20 countries, among them, Scandinavian countries as well as Poland, Lithuania, Estonia etc. Over 65,000 flights with tourists mainly from Britain, Germany and Poland are scheduled for Chania.
By the end of the month, Rhodes expects almost 135,000 foreign tourists with direct flights to a third country, Israel, while Kos also expects more than 30,000 foreign visitors. And Corfu for the whole of April, more than 60,000 seats have been planned, with most of them coming from the United Kingdom.
In the Cyclades, Santorini has already opened the season and is expecting over 36,000 foreign tourists this month, mainly British and French, while Mykonos is slowly opening and will be visited by around 15,000.
Traffic took off at Easter
Both Catholic and Orthodox Easter were the main reasons for the dynamic opening of this year’s summer season in our country. Research by ForwardKeys had revealed that the occupancy of airline seats for intra-European arrivals during Easter reached pre-pandemic levels, while in some cases it exceeded them. Greece recorded a 7% increase in occupancy.
The Tui Group announced it would carry more than 500,000 visitors over the Easter holiday with a load factor of 95%, close to pre-pandemic levels. The Mediterranean and the Canary Islands are the company’s top performing destinations in the UK and German markets, as well as Turkey, the Balearic Islands, mainland Spain, Egypt and Greece.
Tui reported record bookings for the UK market in the year to February 5, more than 10% higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and with prices also higher.
TUI Group chief executive Sebastian Ebel said the tour operator’s booking momentum “remains encouraging” with strong Easter demand “a healthy signal for the coming summer”.
Hotels are opening en masse in Greece
About 30% of Greek hotels opened during the first ten days of April, which covered the demand of the two weeks of Easter.
Gradually, more and more accommodations are opening, while on May 1st, all hotel units are expected to have opened in the country’s main destinations. Hotels in the Cyclades will also open their doors until the end of May.
