Book your summer flights now!
2012-11-21 — /travelprnews.com/ — NIKI is expanding its network in time for summer 2013, with brand-new destinations in Greece and even more flights from Vienna. Following new additions to the airline’s Greek schedules last summer, NIKI is transforming Vienna International Airport into a hub for flights to Greece for the entire airberlin group. Passengers travelling to the country on airberlin flights from Germany and Switzerland will link up with the NIKI network in Vienna.
Under the extended schedules, major holiday destinations such as Crete and Rhodes will now be joined by Karpathos, Kavalla/Thassos, Lesbos, Volos, Kalamata, Araxos, Lefkada and Skiathos. Capacity will also be boosted for destinations such as Mykonos and Santorini that were added in summer 2012. Next summer NIKI will fly to Santorini from the Austrian capital three times a week.
“NIKI’s standing as a popular tourist airline, Vienna’s geographical location and relatively buoyant demand for holiday destinations in Greece mean that NIKI and Vienna are the ideal candidates within the group for serving this market. This allows us to harness the potential of each individual brand and combine preferences in our core markets with the airberlin group to the best possible advantage,” explained airberlin Chief Commercial Officer Paul Gregorowitsch.
NIKI CEO Christian Lesjak continued: “Austrian tourists travelling to Greece next year can look forward to an incredible range of options offered by NIKI. We are also aligning capacity to meet the increased demand from Germany and Switzerland – and happily for our Austrian passengers this means an even greater choice of destinations, more flights and increased flexibility. This year it became even clearer that demand for the traditional holiday week is on the wane – people are looking for longer or shorter stays and now we are able to meet this emerging trend with new services to more and more holiday destinations.”
After adding to the network in 2012, NIKI is ready to extend its service portfolio once again in 2013 to include destinations in Greece. The decision was inspired by the positive developments last summer. While the number of bookings taken for destinations in Greece remained relatively low to begin with, reservations flooded in from spring onwards. “Despite all the political and economic uncertainty in the country, we have carried more customers this year than ever before and reported a massive 41% increase in total passenger numbers*. It is nice to see that our customers are helping this magnificent holiday destination to get its economy back on track,” said Christian Lesjak.
*Comparative period: January-November; all flights to/from Vienna
Fact and figures: Greece 2013
Number of destinations: 19
Number of flights per week: 49
NIKI destinations in Greece:
Corfu, Karpathos, Chania, Kefalonia, Patros/Araxos, Heraklion, Mykonos, Skiathos, Santorini, Kos, Kalamata, Kavalla/Thassos, Mykene/Lesbos, Preveza/Lefkada, Rhodes, Thessaloniki, Samos, Volos, Zakynthos
New destinations
Skiathos: turquoise seas and beautiful bays
Lefkada: crystal-clear coastal waters shimmering in a dazzling palette of blues
Kalamata: historic Greece and impressive ancient monuments
Patros: breathtaking history and culture
Karpathos: stunning agricultural riches
Kavalla: a beautiful port town
Lesbos: the jewel in the Aegean
Volos: the gateway to Pelion
Every single one of these islands is a new world waiting to be discovered – and Greece has more of them than virtually any other country in Europe.
Early-bird flight deals are now available online at www.flyniki.com, via the Service Centre on 0820 737800 and from travel agents. Package deals are available from all good travel agents. Frequent flyers can earn topbonus miles on all NIKI and airberlin flights.
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