ATHENS – With Russian airlines barred under European Union sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, Greece is looking to other countries to fill the void, incuding France, with Aegean Airlines scheduling a millon seats.

Greece is the most important destination for TUI France, and Aegean is a key partner for the French subsidiary of Europe’s biggest tour operator, the agency itself looking to bring 100,000 tourists to Greece.

That came as Aegean and TUI marked 20 years of doing business together with the French agency’s CEO Dirk Van Holsbeke saying at a special event that, “Aegean represents 41 percent of our seat availability to Greece, constituting the third most important air partner of ours.”

“Our partnership with Aegean began in 2002, through the name ‘Marmara’ performing charter flights to Athens and Iraklio. We became then the first tour operator in Greece to have scheduled flights to Greece on a large scale,” he added.

Aegean is adding 10 percent more seats from France this year as Greece hopes for big return of visitors despite the lingering, if waning COVID-19 pandemic, with most health restrictions to be lifted June 1 as a further incentive.

Since 2002, Aegean has partnered with TUI France in bring in 3 million tourists and now offers 95 flights per week linking 10 French airports with seven Greek destinations, Aegean CEO Dimitris Gerogiannis stated, said Kathimerini.