ATHENS – Air passenger arrivals grew 3.9 pct in 2019, totaling 21.5 million, or 803,000 more passengers compared with 2018, Insete Intelligence said in a report released on Friday. The Athens International Airport recorded a 12 pct increase in passenger arrivals totaling 6.4 million euros, up 685,000 from 2018. Passenger arrivals in the country’s regional airports totaled 15 million, up 0.8 pct, led by Thessaloniki (2.3 million passengers up 8.1 pct from 2018).

Insete Intelligence report said that international arrivals in the Dodecanese islands rose 0.4 pct to 3.6 million arrivals, but fell 2.0 pct in Crete to 4.4 million. Arrivals in the Ionian Islands fell 0.4 pct to 3.0 million of which half were in Corfu.

Road arrivals fell 1.6 pct to 12.3 million in 2019. Insete Intelligence said that Greece ranked top in the GRI hotel indicator with an 87.1 pct rate, followed by Croatia (85.5 pct), Cyprus and Spain (85.3 pct and 85 pct respectively), Italy (84.2 pct), Turkey (82.3 pct) and France (79 pct).