Greek Tourism 2025 | Airline seats take off in March – How the season begins

Airline seat bookings at Greek airports from foreign markets show a 14.5% increase in March 2025 compared to the corresponding month in 2024.

This means that in March 2025, over 157,370 additional seats are offered to Greek airports compared to the corresponding month in 2024, with a total of 1.241 million, of which 1.20 million concern the two major hubs of Athens and Thessaloniki.

According to INSETE's Airdata tracker, the largest monthly number of scheduled airline seats comes from Germany (176,794), which is down 5.4% compared to March 2024.

This is followed by Italy (113,982, +6.1% or 6,520 more than last year), the UK (111,606, +4.3% or 4,633 more than last year), Cyprus (100,016, +7.3% or 6,787 more), Turkey (75,494), Israel (69,509), France (57,268), Switzerland (50,240), the Netherlands (43,217) and Spain (38,842).

Markets with the biggest increase in airline seats

The strongest seat scheduling momentum comes from Tunisia (+400%, to 870 seats), followed by Jordan (+173%, 2,922 seats) and China (+157%, 7,331 seats), however, the markets with the biggest increase in airline seats in absolute numbers in March are...

Israel with a 97.6% increase, with 34,945 more airline seats than March 2024, and a total of 70,744.
7,423 more airline seats come from the US, for a total of 26,887, showing a 40.2% increase.
France: Up 58%, with almost 21,000 more seats and a total of 57,274.
Turkey: 26.7% increase, with 15,814 more seats, and a total of 75,086.
UAE: 35% increase, with 8,997 more seats, and a total of 34,801.
Italy: 6.1% increase, with 6,520 more seats and a total of 113,583.
Netherlands: 14.5% increase, with 5,471 more airline seats and a total of 43,219.
According to the planning, Athens airport corresponds to over 1.02 million airline seats, of which most come from Germany (102,126), Italy (97,500), the UK Kingdom (92,911), Cyprus (77,417), Turkey (66,066), Israel (65,823), France (51,590), Switzerland (41,942), the UAE (34,801) and Spain (37,452).

At Thessaloniki Airport, the number of scheduled seats for March amounts to 188,552, with the most important markets being Germany, Cyprus, Italy, the UK, and Austria.

The 6 regional airports that “launch the season” in March

In March, the season at regional airports also seems to be starting timidly.

Heraklion Airport leads the way, with 14,333 airline seats scheduled, mainly from Germany, the UK, Cyprus, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.

This is followed by Rhodes Airport (4,608 seats), Chania (4,209), Corfu (3,257), Kalamata (2,790) and Santorini (1,666).

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: pixabay.com