Despite the obvious challenges that have affected the aviation business in Greece these past couple of years as the country has faced the most severe financial and economic crisis in its recent history, Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos (AIA) has continued to secure new business. Last year the airport secured more than 15 new routes including a landmark link from Qatar Airways to New York, and 2013 has started in similar fashion.

With the adverse microeconomic climate in 2012 affecting significantly the indices of the Greek economy and subsequently air travel demand, AIA managed to contain losses, especially in the domestic segment, which ended up with a total (-7.9) per cent decline outperforming the private consumption index (-9.1 per cent). Additionally, continuous hard work with airline partners, blended with a strong mix of existing and new incentives, generated new developments for 2013 with a strengthened summer 2013 schedule.

This includes new the destinations from local operator Aegean Airlines of Baku and Lyon as well as new services Berlin, Geneva, Kiev, Manchester, St Petersburg and Warsaw. There is enhanced connectivity to Turkey as Pegasus Airlines has daily flights to Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen, while Turkish Airlines is operating 25 weekly frequencies out of Athens, by adding four additional frequencies to Istanbul Ataturk from this summer.

The airport has secured new routes from a number of major international flag carriers and leading low-cost operators. SAS Scandinavian Airlines has introduced flights to Helsinki and Oslo and increased the frequency of its Copenhagen route; Vueling is flying to Bilbao; Norwegian to Helsinki; Iberia and Iberia Express are offering connections to Madrid and Cyprus Airways has enhanced its domestic Greek offering with two daily frequencies between Athens and Heraklion and Rhodes.

Elsewhere, there has been a notable growth into the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region and Eastern Europe. Ukraine International Airlines has added flights to Kiev, S7 Airlines has introduced a link to Moscow, Ural Airlines has a summer link to Krasnador, while Khros Air is offering non-stop services to the Ukrainian cities of Kiev and Lviv.

According to AIA executives, this network growth has been achieved thanks to its strong partnership concept with its airline operators and a scheme of aeronautical incentives and marketing support. For many years now it has been offering a “risk-sharing” incentive scheme, providing significant discounts to its charges for the airlines developing new and /or additional services out of Greek capital.

However, the standout route of the year will be Qatar Airways’ new daily Boeing 787 Dreamliner connection to New York, an extension of its existing flights from Doha. This service is still on track to be launched at some point this year despite the grounding of the Dreamliner.

The route had been one of a small number of long-haul markets served by Olympic Airways, one of the predecessors the current carrier Olympic Air. Through the 1980s the route was also flown by Trans World Airlines (TWA) on a year-round and towards the end of the decade on a seasonal basis meaning that during many months of the year there were double daily flights. Subsequently Tower Air, Continental Airlines, Hellenic Imperial Airlines and most recently Delta Air Lines have served the route but the latter switched from year-round to summer only flights from last year.

There remains a strong demand between Athens and New York and O&D data shows that an estimated 152,000 passengers flew between the two cities last year. Interestingly, around a quarter of these passengers transited via other European hubs suggesting demand exists for additional flight options on the route. Around 13,000 of these O&D passengers flew with British Airways (BA) via London Heathrow and with Qatar Airways’ impending entry into the BA-led oneworld alliance this could be viewed as a strategic move from the grouping to further boost its share of this market.

"Throughout the years, Qatar Airways has demonstrated a very dynamic and successful presence in Athens, with Doha being the top Non-EU destination out of our airport in 2012. When you consider the current economic crisis has put a number of challenges in front of us, this strategic decision of Qatar Airways becomes even more important and indicates the significant potential of Athens,” Ioanna Papadopoulou, Director Communications & Marketing at Athens International Airport told The HUB.

Since the beginning of its operation, AIA has heavily invested in developing synergies not only with its airline-partners but also with all other organisations and authorities that would facilitate and support its strategic objectives towards the enhancement of airport’s traffic and the promotion and upgrade of Athens as a tourist destination.

Focusing on our airline partners, the synergy-spirit has been developed gradually in all business areas, fulfilling airlines’ and AIA’s requirement for an advantageous cooperation for both parties. Towards this direction, AIA has developed and supported an open and seamless communication line, allowing the airlines to address their considerations, suggestions for improvements and concerns, AIA stressing its willingness to support and find effective and tailor-made solutions.

Moreover, AIA has developed a programme of continuous interaction especially with airline planners, which is extended beyond the meetings that take place in the frame of the various conferences, such as World Routes and regional Routes events. “These targeted sales meetings give the opportunity to further elaborate on airlines’ needs and requirements providing the necessary ground for in-depth market analysis and exchange of decision making information in relation to routes’ introduction, enhancement or sustainability,” said Papadopoulou.

AIA’s cooperation with tourism authorities has been another very important area of joint activities and engagement, which has taken the official form of a ‘Memorandum of Cooperation with the Greek National Tourism Organisation, the Ministry of Tourism and the Municipality of Athens. Through promoting of the city of Athens using ‘athenspotlighted’ with a common presence at tourist and aviation conferences, official co-visits to foreign countries and the exchange of market intelligence, a more proactive and cost effective development strategy is in place. The airport has also been financially and administratively involved in the formation of the ‘Marketing Greece’ institution, formed under the umbrella of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises.

AIA’s ‘athenspotlighted’ initiative aims to boost the attractiveness of the city of Athens as a city break destination. Upon arrival at AIA all foreign visitors are offered an ‘athensspotlighted’ card which gives them the opportunity to discover the capital’s unique history and cosmopolitan allure with incentive discounts and special offers providing discounts of between 20 per cent and 30 per cent across a wide range of activities that range from cultural sites and museums to galleries, shops and restaurants in downtown Athens.

Alongside, these partnerships AIA also works closely with various aviation-related state authorities, with Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, being the most important ones, especially in the critical areas of bilateral agreements and visa issues, which facilitate the aviation business.