AEGEAN has announced its new winter flight schedule, which offers 18 new routes to 14 countries, while expanding operations in the Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans and Europe.
The new schedule allows all passengers from Athens to explore new destinations, such as Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Luxor and Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, Innsbruck (Austria), Bratislava (Slovakia), Baku (Azerbaijan), Chisinau (Moldova), and offers the opportunity for the first time for passengers from Thessaloniki to fly directly to Cairo.
AEGEAN also maintains specific routes from Athens to Bristol and Birmingham, Malaga, Bilbao, Tallin, Riga, Tunisia and Barcelona from Thessaloniki that commenced during previous summer months, supporting the expansion of the tourist season, while simultaneously increasing the frequency to well-known destinations by adding a second daily flight from Athens to Frankfurt.
The company maintains regular flights from/to Rhodes, Heraklion and Kalamata until November, while commencing new summer season early in March 2024. In the same direction, AEGEAN is operating charter flights from Rhodes in cooperation with foreign Tour Operator, offering 35.000 available seats, to 22 European destinations in 8 countries, between October - December 2023 and February - May 2024.
AEGEAN state that its enhanced new winter schedule is a continuation of the “very strong nine months of 2023”. More specifically, AEGEAN carried more than 11.9 million passengers between January and September 2023 (7.1 million on the international network), an increase of 30% compared to the same period last year. The company's results were also positive in the third quarter of the year, compared to the same quarter of 2022 as it carried 5.3 million passengers with a highly balanced increase both in domestic passenger traffic by 17% and international passenger traffic by 18%.
Overall, in the first nine months of the year, passenger traffic in AEGEAN's international network from and to Athens "Eleftherios Venizelos" airport increased by 38%, while for the same period the increase in international passenger traffic at Thessaloniki's "Makedonia" airport exceeded 45% compared to the previous year.
AEGEAN, with the support of TEMES, has also reinstated the Thessaloniki - Kalamata direct connection as of November 1, 2023, with three weekly frequencies.
AEGEAN has reached an agreement with TEMES to financially support the operation and reinstate the direct connection between the two destinations. The companies’ decision to "share the burden" of operating the specific route during the winter period, aims to bridge the gap until the public tender is successfully completed by the competent authorities.
The Thessaloniki - Kalamata route is operated by Olympic Air and ceased operation on August 31, due a prior unsuccessful tender.