The low-cost Austrian airline Niki on Tuesday announced its decision to add Athens as a new Greek destination to its list of international flights from this coming April, with daily flights by an Airbus A320 on every day of the week except Saturday. The flights will depart from Vienna at 11:30 a.m. and arrive in Athens at 2:35 p.m., while the return flight will leave at 3:25 p.m. and arrive at 4:45 p.m. local time. According to the airline, Greece was the destination with the greatest percentage increase in recent years, with bookings recovering in 2013 after a steady decline since 2006. New Greek destinations during the coming summer were also announced by easyJet, which said it will operate two flights from Fiumicino airport in Rome to the islands of Zakynthos and Kos and one flight from Geneva to the island of Santorini from June 28 until August 15. This raises the number of new easyJet flights to Greece this year to 10. Ryanair, meanwhile, has added flights from Athens to the island of Santorini and to Bratislava and Budapest starting in April. The airline will operate two flights a day to Santorini, three flights a week to Bratislava and four flights a week to Budapest from Greece’s capital. It will also increase the number of flights to Hania from two to three a day and to Paphos from one to two, offering a total of 12 destinations to and from Athens, with an anticipated 2.2 million passengers. During a presentation of the new routes, however, Ryanair Chief Commercial Officer David O’ Brien expressed objections to a decision by Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) to give the concession for Greece’s regional airports to the Fraport-Slentel consortium, saying this would make them more expensive and less attractive to travelers due to higher charges. According to O’ Brien, Fraport would “capture the keys” to Greece’s islands and make profits without caring how many passengers pass through airports. He said that he had sent repeated letters to the Greek government proposing a reduction in airport taxes in exchange for higher passenger traffic without receiving any reply. “They must choose: tax without passengers or passengers without tax,” he added, noting that Athens International Airport was one of the most expensive airports in Ryanair’s network and had only 60 international routes, compared with Dublin’s 120 and Stansted’s 130. (source: ana-mpa)
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