How Athens develops new markets
"Air-Connectivity Makes People Happy" :-)
During the 3rd Reimagine Tourism Conference, organized by prime Greek media Kathimerni, our own Director Comms and Marketing, Ioanna Papadopoulou, participated at a panel discussion under the theme “Connecting with the World: How we develop new tourist markets from India to Latin America”. Other panelists included, Mr George Vilos, Executive Director, Commercial & Business Development for Fraport Greece & Mrs Marina Valvi, Corporate Affairs & Communications Director for Aegean Airlines. The panel was successfully moderated by the journalist, Mr Apostolos Mangiriadis.
The main topic of the panel was to highlight the strong momentum for the development of new markets for Athens and Greece in total, as well as the benefits of air-connectivity. Successful stories for Athens Long Haul developments include the growth in the US connectivity, having already increased from 46 weekly departures and 4 destinations in 2019 to 103 weekly frequencies and 9 destinations in 2025 (peak Summer period). Equally, for the Chinese market, connectivity has increased from 3 weekly frequencies and 1 destination in 2019 to 12 weekly frequencies and 3 destinations in 2025.
As noted during the panel discussion, 2026 will be “The Year of India” for Athens, a market that Athens International Airport’s team intensively worked on over the last years, we are therefore extremely happy with the exciting developments announced for 2026. IndiGo will inaugurate flights to Delhi and Mumbai as of January 2026 and Aegean Airlines will start operations in March the same year, jointly offering 14 weekly frequencies to 2 destinations in the India market.
Most important than all exciting route developments, is the true value of air connectivity. As it was recently highlighted at a study from ACI Europe “BENEFITS OF AIRPORTS & AIR CONNECTIVITY”, every 10% increase in direct air-connectivity increases European GDP per capita by 0.5% and adds 1.6% more jobs. Furthermore, each 10% increase in direct air connectivity results to a -14% in poverty, a +9% in higher education opportunities , a +19% in gender equality, a 8.5% in Research & Development and an overall increase of life satisfaction by a +1.2%
Great news for the Greek economy and society, if we take into account that Athens International Airport increased its Air Connectivity by 33% in 2025 versus 2019 (ACI Europe Air Connectivity report 2025). It seems that we delivered all above positive impacts to the Greek economy and society by a multiplier of 3! 😊
Based on a study in 2024 by the Foundation for Economic and Industrial research in Greece, Athens International Airport has an impact to the Greek economy by 3.8% of the GDP and 4.2% of total employment. Even more, the tourism sector in Greece accounts for a double-digit percentage to the Greek GDP.
It is true : “Air-Connectivity Makes People Happy!”