Greece and nearby destinations gained popularity in summer charter flights

2012-08-30 — /travelprnews.com/ — According to Finavia airports’ passenger statistics, Greece reinforced its position as Finns’ most popular holiday destination in charter traffic.

Regardingindividual destinations, especially Iraklion in Greece and Billund in Denmarkbecame more popular. The variation is explained by changes in the offering oftravel agencies and airlines. In total, flight travel volume decreased slightlycompared to the same period last year.

Finavia’sstatistics say that the most popular charter destinations from Finland in Juneand July were Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and Spain. Greece was the most popularcountry. A total of 140,584 took charter flights there, 4% more than last year.The popularity of Turkey, Bulgaria and Spain as charter flights decreased. Thenumber of passengers who took charter flights from Finland to Spain was 21,192,as much as 41% less than last year. The clear drop is explained by routetraffic’s simultaneous growth in regard to some destination cities, and changesto the charter flights of international tourists.

This year, nearbydestinations were clearly more popular than during the same period last year.Denmark was the seventh most popular charter destination: the passenger volumethere was 68% higher than last year, totalling 6,643 people. Almost all thesetrips were to Billund, of Legoland fame, doubling its popularity since lastyear. In fact, Billund was an almost equally popular charter destination asKos, the traditional favourite of Finns.

“Greece hasalways been a favourite resort of Finns and it seems that this does not change.Not even the financial turmoil has scared passengers off. With somedestinations, the variation in charter flights is also explained by the factthat changes have taken place in the route traffic offering to the samedestination,” says Mikko Saariaho,Communications Director at Finavia.

In 2011, a total ofabout 19 million passengers passed through the 25 airports maintained byFinavia. In 2011, a total of 14.9 million passengers passed through HelsinkiAirport, the busiest airport in Finland.

“In additionto Helsinki Airport, charter flights are available from many differentprovinces. It is a good thing that Finns can smoothly depart on a holiday fromtheir nearby airport. At the same time, holiday flights provide many aprovincial airport with a vital passenger flow, which makes it easier tomaintain the airport and retain connections from the province,” says MikkoSaariaho at Finavia.

According to an airpassenger survey commissioned by Finavia to Statistics Finland in 2010, 55% ofof Helsinki Airport passengers are male and 45% female. 47% of passengers areon a recreational trip, 38% on a business trip and 15% are visiting friends orrelatives.

The financialsituation has also started to have an impact on the total volume of air travel,which started to decline in the spring. In January–In April 2012, thecombined passenger volumes of route and charter flights still increased but inJune, the total number of air passengers was 2.4% and in July 4.3% less thanthe same period last year.

Source: Finavia’s press release August 30, 2012

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