Very little change in AIA traffic
Traffic at Athens International Airport remained practically at the same levels in 2008, compared with the previous year, reflecting the stagnant picture in the global air market, AIA announced yesterday. The decline in domestic traffic is mostly due to the problems of Olympic Airlines, but this was offset by an increase in international passenger and cargo traffic. Last year a total of 16.5 million passengers used Athens International Airport, resulting in a marginal decrease of 0.4 percent year-on-year that is much better than the average European rate. Domestic traffic posted an annual decline of 2.2 percent, reaching 5.5 million passengers, international passengers rose by 0.5 percent to 10.64 million and cargo rose by 2.7 percent over 2007 to 122.2 million tons. The total number of flights fell by 2.9 percent on an annual basis to 199,418, because of the roughly 4 percent drop in the number of domestic flights.
