Athens Airport: strong growth helped by pricing strategy shows benefit of European deregulation

As the largest city in Greece and also its commercial centre, Athens' air traffic was badly affected by the global financial crisis. Athens International Airport is now growing rapidly once more, with 2015 looking set to match 2014's passenger growth rate in excess of 20%. In 2014, it was the second fastest growing primary airport in Europe (after Istanbul Ataturk). Overall traffic is still down from pre-GFC levels but catching up.

Athens' recovery has been staged in spite of ongoing political and economic uncertainty. Indeed, in recent years, Greek air traffic and GDP growth have de-coupled in an unprecedented manner. The European regulatory environment, or, more particularly, European deregulation created the opportunity for Athens to achieve this. Without liberalisation Ryanair's entry and rapid growth and Aegean's consolidation of Greece's airline sector would not have happened. The airport's innovative pricing structure has also played a part.