Domestic travellers cut spending budgets
Passenger traffic at the Athens International Airport (AIA) declined 14.7 percent in January from the same month a year earlier as domestic travellers cut their budgets.
The number of people passing through Greece?s biggest airport dropped to 897,368 from 1.05 million in the same month a year earlier, according to AIA, majority-owned by the Greek state and managed by German construction company Hochtief.
?This traffic loss is largely attributed to the severe drop in domestic passengers, while the traffic decline in the international market is considerably more limited,? it said in a statement.
The number of domestic passengers in the first month of the year fell 28 percent to 323,875.
Travel budgets have been hit by government-imposed austerity measures, including wage cuts and higher sales taxes agreed in exchange for emergency loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund last May to avoid a default.
International travelers passing through the airport fell 4.5 percent to 573,493 in January, the statement showed.
