Ryanair, today (31 Jan) launched its Athens Winter 2017 schedule, with 2 new routes to Katowice and Krakow (plus 2 more to be confirmed) and 20 routes in total, which will deliver 2.9m customer p.a in total and support 2,175 jobs at Athens International Airport.

Ryanair’s Athens winter 2017 schedule will deliver:
· 2 new routes: Katowice (2 weekly), Krakow (2 weekly) (plus 2 more to be confirmed)
· 20 routes in total
· 2.9m customers p.a.
· 2,175* “on-site” jobs p.a.

Ryanair’s Greek summer 2017 schedule is attracting record bookings, as Ryanair passes on lower fuel costs, through lower fares, and an even better customer experience, as it continues to roll out its “Always Getting Better” improvements.

Sadly, Ryanair will cut its Athens traffic by 22% for winter 2017 following continued runway delays in Thessaloniki and the Government’s non-response to Ryanair’s growth proposals. Ryanair will continue to connect Athens with major business centres on high frequency, low fare services including Rome (2 daily) and London (daily), with better timings and lower fares, making Ryanair the ideal choice for Greek business and leisure customers. These new routes will go on sale from early February.

In Athens, Ryanair’s David O’Brien said:

“We are pleased to launch our Winter 2017 schedule and to announce new routes to Katowice and Krakow, with two further routes to be announced in the coming weeks. Ryanair’s 20 routes will deliver 2.9m customers p.a. and support 2,175* jobs at Athens International airport. These new routes will go on sale in early February.

We are also pleased to report record bookings on our Athens summer 2017 schedule, and Greek customers can look forward to fares falling even further when they make advance bookings in 2017, so there’s never been a better time to book a low fare flight on Ryanair. We urge all customers who wish to book their holidays to do so now on the Ryanair.com website or mobile app, where they can avail of the lowest fare air travel to and from Athens.

Ryanair urges the Greek government not to repeat past errors and to extend the Athens concession on the basis of traffic and tourism growth commitments, rather than the highest bid. Ryanair notes that if Athens performed to its potential, an additional 20m passengers, 5m tourists (spending €2.7bn) and 15,000 jobs could be rapidly created.

To celebrate the launch of our Athens Winter 2017 schedule we are releasing seats for sale from Athens from just €19, 99 which are available for booking until midnight Thursday (2 Feb). Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com and avoid missing out.”