Low-cost Icelandic airline PLAY has started ticket sales for flights from Athens to Iceland and the United States of America, initially with two flights per week, every Tuesday and Saturday, starting June 3, 2023.

The increase in regular flights offered by US airlines to Athens and Thessaloniki has helped to greatly boost tourist flows from the USA, the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) for the region of Greece said in a statement on Friday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "continuous hostile remarks against Greece and the Greek people raise serious concerns and fully contradict much-needed de-escalation efforts in the Eastern Mediterranean," European Commission spokesperson for external affairs Peter Stano on Monday.