Ryanair estimates to have doubled the number of passengers currently travelling to and from Thessaloniki within the coming triennium, if its plans get ahead accordingly, said the company’s Chief Commercial Officer David O’Brien in a press conference on Tuesday. The low-cost airliner aims to increase the number of passengers travelling through “Macedonia” International Airport by 500,000 per year by 2018, revealed O’Brien noting that in a three-year time frame Ryanair’s target for Greece is to reach 10 million passengers from 5 million today which, if accomplished, will bring Greece additional revenues of 3 billion euros from tourism. “Macedonia” airport has “huge potential for growth”, said the CCO who added that his company is planning 17 routes for this summer and 105 weekly flights.
O’Brien also spoke in favour of re-launching the tender for the lease of 14 regional airports, “with new conditions” however. “Instead of a premium, the tender must be connected with targets on passenger traffic. Airports should be given to the one who can guarantee most traffic”, he explained noting that Greece needs more than 1.5 billion euros. The CCO continued saying that “the only thing worse than a state monopoly is a private monopoly” that would only care about passenger traffic in the summer months when Greece needs 12-month tourism.