Early this month Ryanair announced having opened an Athens based hub for operations operating six routes across the Greece region. The low cost airline hopes the new hub will help bolster the 1.2 million passengers per year to then Greek capital, and prop up the 1200 plus jobs Athens Airport benefits from.
Courtesy Ryanair Corporate
In addition to the two planes slated for Athens, Ryanair also announced they’ll launch a dedicated Greek website by the end of April dedicated to Greek travelers. Head of sales and marketing, Peter Bellew, offered this comment:
“Ryanair is delighted to open its new base at Athens, offering 6 exciting routes to Chania, London, Milan, Paphos, Rhodes and Thessaloniki, which will deliver over 1.2m passengers p.a. and sustain over 1,200* “on-site” jobs at Athens Airport. Our 6 new Athens routes will allow Greek consumers and visitors to escape Aegean/Olympic’s high fares and instead enjoy Ryanair’s lowest fares and industry leading customer service and punctuality.”
One aspect of tourism that negatively affects Greece and the out islands is the cost and infrequency of flights to places like Crete and Rhodes. Ryanair’s recent Chania direct flights from the UK are already proving to be something of a boom for businesses in that western Crete city. To hammer home Ryanair’s commitment to these new Greece operations, Bellew also announced releasing some 100,000 seats for sale for as low as €19.99 for travel in May and June if booked prior to April 3rd. Those seats were gone in a few hours, needless to say.