Ryanair to double traffic to Macedonia

O'Brien said the company’s aim is to increase the number of passengers travelling through "Macedonia" International airport by 500,000 per year by 2018.
Ryanair’s three-year target for Greece in general is to reach 10 million passengers from 5 million today which, if accomplished, will bring Greece additional revenues of 3 billion euros from tourism, the CCO noted.

“Macedonia” airport has “huge potential for growth”, O’Brien said, adding his company plans 17 routes for this summer and 105 weekly flights.  
“Thessaloniki has a population of about one million and 5.2 million passengers are handled annually through its airport (from all companies). The airport in Dublin which has the same population, handles 21.5 million passengers,” the executive said.

“From these numbers you understand something is not going right. This is very negative for Greece which could achieve bigger growth and employment thanks to tourism, given it is estimated that for every 1,000 tourists, one new job is created in the airport,” he added.

Part of the problem, O’Brien said, is the high airport fees, an issue which he raised in his meeting with Economy, Infrastructure, Shipping and Tourism Minister, George Stathakis and the Alternate Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura. “In Athens in particular, the cost is 36 euros per passenger. Thessaloniki is not so expensive but geographically it is very far from the rest of Europe,” he added and described the new ministers as “very pragmatic”.

Ryanair’s CCO also favoured re-launching the tender for the lease of 14 regional airports. “I think the tender must be re-launched with new conditions,” he said, adding that “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 noted that Greece needs more than 1.5 billion euros.    
O’Brien continued to say that “the only thing worse than a state monopoly is a private monopoly” that will only care about passenger traffic in the summer months when Greece needs 12-month tourism.