Happy Landings , Spectacular Take-offs! 2025 a new RECORD year for Athens International Airport with 34mio PAX, scoring 33% growth to pre-Pandemic levels (2019) and almost 7% to 2024! 2026 : A strong beginning with +8.6% in Passenger traffic in January

Spectacular traffic growth continued in 2025, with Athens International Airport achieving its best YEAR ever , recording 34mio round-trip PAX and a growth of 6.7% to the previous record year of 2024. International traffic increased by 8.6% with 1.93mio additional PAX, while Domestic traffic increased by 2.2% and 209 thousand additional PAX. Growth was driven by the International segment, with 90% of the growth generated Internationally. For full year 2025,  share of International traffic at 73% of the airport total traffic.

Cumulatively, Athens added 11.3mio PAX in the last 3 years, or during the last 1,000 days for the airport. With the spectacular RECORD of 34mio PAX for 2025, Athens grew by 33% to 2019 levels, making Athens the fastest growing airport in Europe, among all Capital and Major airports when compared to pre-Pandemic levels, as per ACI-Europe.

Equally impressive for Athens is the fact that Demand follows Supply, as the growth of 6.7% in PAX traffic was supported by a 7.0% growth in available capacity when compared to 2024. Furthermore and despite the addition of 2.7mio Seats on scheduled PAX services, Load Factor remained very high with an average of 81% for the full year. The strongest improvements in Load Factor are recorded in the winter months  of December, November and January 2025, versus 2024.

In 2025, Athens was directly connected to 55 Countries and 174 airport destinations, 141 International + 33 Domestic, with 70 airlines offering Scheduled passenger services. The network of Athens was further enhanced in 2025 with 8 New Destinations and 13 Additional New Services on existing routes, with 5 New Airlines joining the Athens network.

Italy is Athens TOP International market in Direct PAX traffic, with a growth of 4% to 2024. All TOP10 International markets recorded growth, with Israel, USA, Spain and Turkey achieving double digit growth rates.

Athens direct Long-Haul network (US, Canada, China and Singapore) recorded a strong growth with +15.1% in PAX traffic for 2025, versus 2024.

In the TOP20 ranking, strong growth rates with over 20% to 2024 are also recorded at Hungary, Albania and Denmark.

Based on IATA-AirportIS O&D figures for full year 2025, Athens O&D traffic increased by 7.2% to 2024.

Italy is Athens TOP International market with a strong 7% growth to 2024. USA is Athens 2nd strongest O&D market, reaching 2mio round-trip passengers for the first time ever in 2025, with a spectacular 12% growth to the previous year. In addition to the US, Israel, Cyprus, Spain and Switzerland achieved strong double digit growth rates.

Furthermore, Foreign Residents’ International  arrivals (based on Athens International Airport own passenger survey) reached 8.72mio one-way PAX for the first time ever, with a strong growth of 10% to 2024. This is a very important Index for Athens, measuring “Tourism demand” with US holding the TOP position as the strongest International market in foreign arrivals.

The successful extension of the season for Athens is further highlighted by the fact that winter months, January, November & December recorded  strong growth in Foreign arrivals, when compared to 2024.

In addition to Foreign arrivals, Greeks traveling Internationally grew by 6.4% with almost 6.8mio International trips. This is a significant number, revealing new dynamics of the Athens market as traffic is not only dependent on Inbound flows. Italy is the strongest destination for Greeks traveling outbound, with a 3% growth to 2024, followed by the UK and Cyprus, with demand for Cyprus increasing by 7%. In terms of City destinations for Greeks, London is by far the strongest, double in size to the second most popular destination for Greeks which is Larnaca. Greeks traveling to Larnaca increased by 39% when compared to 2024.

A great start for 2026, with January at +8.6% in Passenger traffic compared to January 2025. For January alone, Pax traffic at Athens almost reached 2mio monthly PAX, with both International and Domestic segments demonstrating strong growth rates. International traffic increased by 9.2% and Domestic by 7.1%, resulting in 158 thousand additional passengers…

In addition, flights in January 2026 increased by +7.3%, resulting in improved Load Factors to the same month last year.

New network developments already announced for 2026 are paving the way for another spectacular year.

Stay tuned …. more news to follow!!!