Airport

Passenger traffic at Cypriot airports in the year to Friday exceeded the total traffic of the entire pre-pandemic year of 2019, Minister of Transport, Communications and Works Alexis Vafeades said in a statement.

Compared to 2019, this year is expected to show an increase of 3%.

London's Gatwick airport has said that it had been forced to cancel more than 160 flights between yesterday and Sunday due to an exceptional shortage of controllers, partly caused by coronavirus infections.

Fraport Greece, which manages the country's 14 largest regional airports, saw its first-half turnover increase 37.4%, to €191 million, compared to the same period in 2022.

Operating profit (EBITDA) rose 25.3%, to €73 million. Passengers reached 11.8 million, of which 73% were international departures and arrivals.

Passenger traffic posted a major increase across the country's airports during the year's first five months, according to data from the Civil Aviation Authority.

Infrastructures, human resources and expanding the tourist season are the necessary preconditions for a sustainable development of tourism and of air transport in Greece, Dimitris Gerogiannis, CEO of Aegean Airlines, said on Monday.

He said infrastructures were extremely important for the sustainable development of tourism, of cities and of the country in general.

Türkiye's airports are expected to serve more than 200 million passengers this year, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu has said.

The high performance as well as the very good prospects of the current tourist season were confirmed by the data released by Greece's Civil Aviation Service on passenger traffic at the country's airports in the first quarter of 2023, with Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias underlining in a tweet on Thursday that "new target-markets are bringing additional revenue to the Greek economy."

A major strike brought much of Germany's air traffic, rail service and commuter lines to a halt on Monday as workers demand wage hikes in the face of brisk inflation.

Workers at airports, ports, railways, buses and metro lines throughout much of Europe's top economy heeded a call by the Verdi and EVG unions for the 24-hour walkout.

Sofia Airport operates for the second day in strong wind conditions, but remains open for arriving and departing aircraft.

At the moment, the flights are operating according to schedule, the press center of the airport informed BNT. The wind is still within acceptable limits for safe landings or takeoffs.

The 14 regional airports run by Fraport saw record arrivals figures in 2022, with domestic arrivals up 3.4% and international arrivals up 7.2% compared to the pre-pandemic period (2019).

The figures emerged after a meeting Tuesday between Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias and Fraport Greece CEO Alexander Zinell.