ATHENS – Fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns that stymied air traffic – and after getting 120 million euros in state aid during the crisis – Aegean Airlines said it’s on a path to a record busting 2024.

The airline carried 44 million passengers in the second quarter from April through June, up 8 percent over the previous year that saw a record number of tourists pour into Greece and continuing in 2024.

The first half of the year is traditionally the slowest but it saw a 9 percent increase and 5.4 million seats added, making a total of 19.8 million in the six-month period, with spring especially strong.

International passenger traffic to and from Athens  grew 13 percent annually to about 2 million people in the second quarter that came after flights were added to other European hubs, including Germany, England, Cyprus Turkey, and Gulf and Baltic state countries.

The second quarter was also strong in Greece’s second-largest city of Thessaloniki, which is attracting people year round. Foreign arrivals grew 12 percent to 292,000 in the period, bringing the first total to some 500,000 people.

Athens International Airport is the airline’s hub and saw traffic from around the world grow exponentially as well after more than 31 million people – three times the country’s population – came in 2023.

That also lets them fly Aegean to islands and other locations, further benefiting the airline, with much of the traffic going to places like London, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Dubai as well.