Greece’s tourism sector is in full swing ahead of the Orthodox Easter and the summer holidays.
After the record 2023 summer, with tourism receipts over 20.5 billion euros and tourist arrivals exceeding 33 million tourists, a new record of arrivals and revenues is expected to be registered in 2024.
Expanding programs to meet the increased demand
A significant number of airlines are preparing to meet the increased demand in the summer with the addition of new destinations. Both tour operators with charter flights and scheduled airlines announced additional connections with Greek airports.
The Jet2 group has already launched the largest program for Greece that it has implemented so far, with the capacity of airline seats increasing by 12% compared to 2023.
More than 100 routes are available from 11 UK airports to 14 airports in Greece: Athens, Corfu, Chania, Heraklion, Kefalonia, Rhodes, Kos, Thessaloniki (Chalkidiki), Skiathos, Santorini, Zakynthos, Lesbos, Kalamata and Preveza.
The company will also add a fourth weekly flight from Manchester to Santorini. The total number of Jet2 air seats sold to Greece this year amounts to 1.52 million.
TUI Airways is also expanding its flight schedule to the islands of Rhodes and Kos in the summer season of 2024 with new routes. The new connections concern the routes: Birmingham-Kos, from 5 May 2024, and Manchester-Rhodes, from 4 May 2024. In addition, TUI in collaboration with Wizz Air will connect Vienna with Chania and Budapest with Heraklion.
Air France also added new flights to Greece in the summer, including Kalamata, every Saturday from July 6 to August 31. Also, Aegean Airlines added its 4th consecutive flight from Athens to London to its schedule. United Airlines has announced that it is enhancing flights from Greece by 25% for 2024, while seasonal routes from Athens to New York/Newark and Washington Dulles will begin earlier.
O’Hare is also planning a new flight from Chicago to Athens, from May 24, 2024.
Heraklion welcomes a new airline
Heraklion will welcome a new airline. This is Romania’s Bees Airlines, which will connect Chisinau with Heraklion.
EasyJet is adding 5 new routes from Athens this summer, connecting the Greek capital with Lyon and Bordeaux in France, Venice in Italy, and Malaga and Palma de Mallorca in Spain.
Also, the flight schedule of the British carrier for 2024 includes two new routes to Sitia, from Milan (Malpensa) and from Naples, a route from Amsterdam to Chania, and one from Basel to Chania.
Also, the new connections are Nantes-Corfu, Naples-Preveza, Naples-Zakynthos.
Flights to Corfu, Heraklion, Kos and Rhodes will start from Birmingham, while Skiathos will be connected to Bristol, Rhodes to Geneva, Skiathos to London and Manchester and Kefalonia to Nice in France. Ryanair has added five new flights to Greece for 2024.
More specifically, the low cost airline added a route from Milan (Bergamo) to Skiathos, from April 1, a route from Stockholm (Arlanda) to Rhodes and a route from Weeze to Kos.
Among the new additions are two itineraries from Thessaloniki, to Helsinki and to Sarajevo. PLAY, Iceland’s low-cost airline, started its flights from Athens earlier this year, specifically on March 24, connecting the Greek capital directly with Iceland and with destinations in the United States and Canada.
This year, PLAY will operate two flights a week from “Eleftherios Venizelos” Airport.
Connection with Israel
Finally, connections with Israel are gradually increasing. El Al has announced that it is increasing its flights between Tel Aviv and Thessaloniki from 4 to 5 per week from May 5. Also, from June, Gulf Air will connect Rhodes with Bahrain, while Air Arabia will directly connect Athens with Sharjah and Kuwait Airways will connect Athens with Kuwait.
