Passenger traffic results 2015 1,5 million more passengers, overall passenger traffic 11,6 million passengers 24% international traffic growth, 4 times faster than the country’s rate of increase in total air arrivals

Kifisia, February 11th, 2016 – AEGEAN, a Star Alliance member, announces total passenger growth of 15% in 2015. Passengers carried reached 11.650.374, i.e. 1.537.849 more than in 2014.

The greatest part of the increase derived from the international network, where the main investment in new destinations was made, marking a 24% increase, 4 times faster than the country’s rate of increase in total air arrivals (6%). This performance gives further evidence to the Company’s leading contribution to the development of the country’s tourism and its support to the national economy.

It should also be mentioned that despite significantly fiercening competition and weak internal demand, for yet another year AEGEAN presented growth of 7% in domestic traffic, by offering even lower fares and significantly improved interconnectivity.

AEGEAN’s 2015 PASSENGER TRAFFIC
	Passenger traffic	% CHANGE
DOMESTIC Passengers	5.623.754	7%
INTERNATIONAL Passengers	6.026.620	24%
OVERALL NETWORK TRAFFIC	11.650.374	15%

 

AEGEAN presented positive dynamic in all of its bases in Greece and in Larnaca, Cyprus. Its main hub in Athens was the champion of the company's overall activity, with 15 new destinations, having more than doubled its international network within 2 years. Athens traffic exceeded 9 million passengers in total, either as a final destination but also significantly as an interconnection hub for small and bigger islands, with new international markets which the company invests in and penetrates.

 

 

Evolution-Activity in the company's 4 main airports/bases*
	Passenger traffic	% CHANGE
ATHENS	9.083.907	16%
HERAΚLION	1.465.695	11.8%
THESSALONIKI	2.171.131	0.5%
RHODES	887.999	9.3%

*(note: this analysis counts domestic passengers both at the departure airport and at the arrival airport)

 

As regards the domestic traffic increase, Athens, Heraklion and Rhodes showed significantly higher growth rates compared to the overall market. Athens was the big winner in 2015, marking an impressive increase rate of 28%, based on traditional markets such as France, Cyprus, Italy or Switzerland, countries in which the company operates direct flights to many more destinations, and also to new markets, such as Saudi Arabia, Norway and Iran, added in 2015. 

 

Furthermore, thanks to the expansion of direct connections and the number of aircraft flying from Heraklion and Rhodes, the company was able to cover the significant losses of said destinations from the Russian market (45%) and present a positive traffic increase of 19% & 17% respectively from these two important for Greek tourism bases, which suffered an overall market downturn.

 

Total international passengers per base airport
	JANUARY-DECEMBER 2015	% OF CHANGE
ATHENS	3.970.583	27.6%
HERAΚLION	567.028	18.6%
THESSALONIKI	744.459	-2.1%
RHODES	270.647	16.8%
OVERALL PASSENGER TRAFFIC (REMAINING AIRPORTS)	473.925	63.3%

 

Mr. Dimitris Gerogiannis, AEGEAN's CEO stated:

 "2015 was a challenging year; nevertheless, AEGEAN and Olympic Air continue investing. In the midst of the capital controls and with the banks closed, we significantly expanded our international network in new markets and we have taken delivery of four brand new Airbus Α320ceo aircraft. We upgraded our electronic services with a new-gen website and enhanced our loyalty programme with new benefits and services for our passengers.  We never ceased to support domestic air travel, offering even lower fares, even during July amidst a frozen market. We never ceased investing in training, developing and rewarding our people, while we have increased our human resources by 700 employees since 2013 when we acquired Olympic Air and we have reached 2850 employees in total. Thus, we achieved another year of dynamic growth, with 1.5 million more passengers and 11.6 million passengers overall.

In 2016, we will dynamically continue our efforts in the same direction. We are obviously hoping for stability, which will allow foreign visitors to flow into our country, and the state to proceed, either itself or by providing concessions to investors, to all necessary upgrading, building of infrastructure, and establishment of regulators in the aviation sector."