Passenger traffic rises 4.8% year on year, while aircraft movements increase 4.2%, according to the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority.
Greek airports handled nearly 71.7 million passenger movements between January and September 2026, marking a 4.8% increase compared with the same period last year, according to data from the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA).
The country’s 39 airports serving commercial flights recorded 71,665,899 passenger movements during the first nine months of the year, up from 68,386,113 in the corresponding period of 2025. The increase represents approximately 3.28 million additional passenger movements, reflecting continued growth in Greece’s air transport sector.
Aircraft movements also increased during the period. A total of 532,421 domestic and international arrivals and departures were recorded across the network, compared with 511,140 a year earlier, representing growth of 4.2%.
Greece’s commercial airport network comprises 24 airports managed by the HCAA, 14 regional airports operated by Fraport Greece and Athens International Airport.
HCAA-managed airports record stronger growth
Passenger traffic at the 24 airports managed by the HCAA rose by 5.2% year on year, reaching 11,358,457 passenger movements between January and September 2026. The total compares with 10,792,305 during the same period in 2025.
The network includes Heraklion and Kalamata, alongside regional and island airports serving destinations such as Paros, Naxos, Milos, Karpathos, Chios and Sitia.
In September alone, passenger traffic across these 24 airports increased by 4.4% compared with the same month last year, indicating that demand remained firm towards the end of the main summer travel season.
Heraklion International Airport “Nikos Kazantzakis” recorded the highest passenger volume among the HCAA-managed airports during the month. It handled 1,529,886 passengers in September, up 3.9% from 1,472,518 in September 2025.
The increase amounted to more than 57,000 additional passenger movements, underlining the importance of Crete as a major destination in Greece’s tourism market.
Air traffic expands alongside passenger demand
Across all 39 airports, passenger traffic grew slightly faster than aircraft movements during the January–September period. The figures suggest that passenger volumes continued to expand alongside flight activity, although they do not, on their own, establish changes in airline load factors or aircraft capacity.
The data include domestic and international passengers, covering both arrivals and departures. They therefore measure airport passenger movements rather than the number of individual visitors entering Greece.
The latest figures provide an indication of the scale of activity across Greece’s airport network during the first three quarters of 2026, a period that encompasses the country’s peak summer tourism season.
With traffic increasing at both the national and HCAA-managed airport levels, the results highlight the continuing role of air connectivity in supporting access to Greece’s mainland, islands and established holiday destinations.
