The Greek Island of Santorini expects a bumper summer. With 2.44 million round-trip seats, it is up by 5.6% over its previous high – the 2.31 million recorded in summer 2019 (S19). Some 16 additional airlines are to serve the island, with a good focus on the Middle East. And almost 70 routes have been added, meaning more than 10 extra countries are connected to the island.
Some 39 Greek airports are set to see scheduled service this summer. Santorini’s rise has pushed the airport into the country’s sixth-busiest spot, analyzing data provided by carriers to OAG confirms, up by two places in the past two summers. What airlines and route additions account for this?
16 airlines have added service
This summer, some 16 additional airlines have added Santorini when compared with S19. These include a raft of network airlines, such as Aegean, Aer Lingus, Air France, LOT, and SWISS. In addition, there is now a range of operators from the Middle East, a region last served from Santorini in 2018. These include Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, with this one of three units in the Wizz Air Group each with a separate air operator’s certificate (AOC).
- Aegean
- Aer Lingus
- airBaltic
- Air France
- Alitalia
- Etihad Airways
- flydubai
- Gulf Air
- Jet2
- LOT Polish
- Lumiwings
- Luxair
- SWISS
- Wizz Air Hungary
- Wizz Air Abu Dhabi
- Wizz Air UK
A fight for the top few spots
When all three Wizz Air units are combined, the Group has nearly 280,000 Santorini seats this summer across 22 routes, up from zero in S19. This means that the Group is now the neck-and-neck with Volotea for Santorini’s third-largest airline spot. If looked at on an AOC basis, Wizz Air Hungary, overwhelmingly the largest…