According to an announcement, the company’s two carriers – AEGEAN and Olympic Air -carried 11.6 million passengers during the first nine months of 2019, reporting a 7 percent growth in passenger traffic. The growth is almost entirely due to the company’s 11 percent increase in international flights (700,000 additional passengers), reaching 6.8 million passengers in the nine-month period, having invested in an additional 715,000 seats.
“The systematic effort to expand the tourism season by activating the bulk of the fleet at the beginning of the tourist season, as it was done this year, poses a financial risk to the company, but it is necessary both for fleet utilization and for enhancing tourism and it ultimately yields results,” the company underlined.
During the January-September 2019 period, international traffic in Athens – AEGEAN’s main base – rose by 11 percent. During the same period, international traffic in the rest of Greece, mainly from AEGEAN bases in Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Chania, Rhodes and Kalamata, rose by 8 percent.
“This is particularly important, as it indicates that overall tourist traffic in the rest of the country is either stagnant or rising,” AEGEAN said.
The company’s strategy continues with an equally significant increase in available seats during the upcoming winter season and by the retention of more destinations. Therefore, by the end of the year, the number of offered seats by AEGEAN is expected to reach 17.6 million, including 10.2 million seats that will be reserved for international flights.
AEGEAN’s new 2020 summer program is expected to be announced by the end of October.
Source : GTP Headlines
