Mytilene International Airport

Passenger traffic posted a major increase across the country's airports during the year's first five months, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority.

Fraport Greece reported a 71.4% annual decline in passenger traffic last year at the 14 regional airports it operates in Greece.

Tourist traffic data for 2019 is looking rather good, as Fraport Greece announced a first-quarter year-on-year rise of 8.2 percent at its regional airports, though this is attributed mainly to domestic rather than foreign travelers.

More than 44 million passengers used Greek airports in the January-to-August 2018 period, up 9.9 percent from the same period in 2017, while there was also an 8.7 percent increase in the number of flights, Civil Aviation Authority figures have shown.

Fraport Greece, a Fraport-led consortium, will slash airport fees by 50 percent during this year's low season to attract new international flights to 14 Greek airports, it said on Wednesday.

The extension of the tourist season through the attraction of tourists and new markets, such as Asian, is the biggest target for the development of Thessaloniki airport, which has the features of a metropolitan airport.

An overall increase of 11.4 percent in arrivals during the month of September was reported by Fraport at the 14 airports it manages across Greece.

According to Fraport, domestic passenger traffic increased by 5.9 percent year-over-year last month, while international passenger traffic rose 12.6 percent, with Thessaloniki, Mytilini and Kos seeing the largest increase.

According to a report in German newspaper Spiegel report Fraport, the company that bought out 14 Greek regional airports is seeking financial compensation amounting to 70 million euros by the Greek state due the condition the airport terminals were in.

Apparently the Greek Civil Aviation Authority had left the 14 regional airports in the darkness. Therefore, when the German-Greek consortium FRAPORT took over last April, they found a total of 12.000 burned out bulbs in the fourteen regional airports.

The first privatization of the SYRIZA-ANEL government is a reality, as the concession of 14 Greek regional airports to German Fraport for 1.23bln Euros has been finalized. The Greek government reached the decision upon the recommendation of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED) after the relevant tender ended 3 months ago.