With 28.2 million scheduled airline seats on international flights to Greece and an increase of 4.6% compared to 2024, the 2025 summer season opens (March 30 – October 25, 2025).
According to the Air Data Tracker, the digital hub of the Institute of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (INSETE), the data point to a gradual increase in tourist activity at the beginning of the season, similar to that recorded in the autumn months of the previous two years. Specifically, the largest increase, compared to 2024, occurs in March (95.2%), followed by April (10.5%), May (5.9%), June (5.1%), August (3.6%), July (3.1%), October (3%) and September (2.9%).
Take-off of airline seats from the USA
In terms of markets, the largest increase for the 2025 summer season is recorded by the USA (18.6%), followed by Italy (3.9%), Germany (2.5%), the UK (2.2%), and the Netherlands (1.5%). However, in absolute numbers…
- The UK remains the largest market for Greece, with 5.6 million seats, representing 20% ??of the total.
- This is followed by Germany with 4.7 million seats and a market share of 17%.
- Italy is third with 2.5 million seats and a market share of 9%, confirming the steady upward trend of recent years.
- France follows with 1.72 million seats –although reduced from last year-, Israel and the Netherlands with 1.19 million seats.
- The USA records 727,400 airline seats.
Among the significant increases, Israel stands out with a strong increase of +52.1%, exceeding 1.3 million seats. Countries with low capacity so far also show a notable increase, such as Saudi Arabia (+45.0%) with 84 thousand seats, Albania (+56.0%) with 156 thousand seats, and Armenia (+68.5%) with 75 thousand seats. Georgia also shows an impressive increase, which more than doubles its capacity (+113%) with 126 thousand seats.
On the contrary, decreases are observed in countries such as France (-2.6%) with 1.7 million seats, Poland (-6.7%) with 682 thousand seats, and Denmark (-7.3%) with 298 thousand seats.
Thessaloniki is the champion, decrease in seats for Santorini
At the level of destinations, Thessaloniki shows the largest increase with +11.4% or 231,000 more airline seats and a total of 2.3 million seats for the summer season.
Athens follows with 763,000 more airline seats or +8.3% and a total of 10 million seats, Chania with +5.6% and 1.4 million places, Corfu with +5.1% and 2.3 million places, and Rhodes with +2.4% and 2.9 million places.
Marginal increases are shown by Mykonos (+0.9%) with 650 thousand places, Heraklion (+0.2%) with 3.7 million places and Kos (+0.1%) with 1.4 million places.
On the contrary, a decrease is shown by Santorini (-11.6%) with 754 thousand places and Zakynthos (-1.5%) with 1.0 million places.
Of the competing countries, the largest increases are shown by the smaller destinations (Croatia, Cyprus, Malta), while the remaining countries range between 4.1% and 5.7%, except for France, where the increase is expected to be marginal (+0.6%).
Spain has the largest number of places with 82.9 million (+5.6% compared to last year), followed by Italy with 62.1 million (+5.7%), France with 58.2 million (+0.6%), Turkey with 52 million (+4.1%), Greece with 28.2 million (+4.6%), Portugal with 22.6 million (+5.4%), Croatia with 6.9 million (+7.2%), Cyprus with 5.7 million (+16.4%) and Malta with 3.8 million (+10.4%).
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
