Aegean Airlines and subsidiary, Olympic Air, announced passenger traffic growth for 2017 increased by 6%, exceeding the 13-million milestone. The Heraklion, Greece-based carrier transported 13.2 million passengers over the last year or 750,000 more than in the previous year. Additionally, the two airline brands flew the same number of flights to accomplish the result.
Aegean’s international routes are boosting the airliner’s growth and there’s been a rise of 9 percent on an annual basis. with domestic routes served 5.9 million passengers, up by roughly 200,000 from 2016.
Passenger traffic showed 750,000 more than the previous year, and according to the company, this reflected an improved exploitation of the network since the number of flights executed in 2017 was not higher compared with 2016. Domestic traffic totaled 5.9 million passengers, from 5.7 million in 2016, helped by attractive and regular offers in fares which led to very high seat occupancy rates. The seat occupancy rate was 83 pct in 2017 from 77 pct in 2016. Dimitris Gerogiannis, Aegean Airlines CEO had this to add:
“The year 2017 ended with positive performances, achieving all basic quantity and quality goals set for the year. We exploited our fleet more efficiently, achieving historic high occupancy rates and continued promoting products and destinations in our flights.”
Dimitris also spoke of plans for 2018 for 18 new destinations and a total of 700 thousand extra seats. Furthermore, the Aegean CEO discussed the need for the State need to invest, with the right policies and products, so that a better foundation for the development of Greece’s tourism product.