Athens airport delays prompt emergency meeting as Greece ranks third in Europe for flight disruptions

Meeting convened as delays spike

An emergency meeting was held at the Civil Aviation Authority on Monday afternoon, bringing together the Civil Aviation Service, Athens International Airport, air traffic controllers and the country's two main carriers, AEGEAN and SKY express. The talks, described as taking place in a positive climate, focused on the causes of delays that have intensified over the past two to three weeks and on technical and operational improvements. All parties committed to working towards easing the pressure on the system.

Conflicting data on the scale of the problem

Eurocontrol's latest figures show Greece responsible for 13% of all en-route air traffic flow management delays in Europe, with 9% attributed to the Athens flight information region and 4% to Macedonia Airport in Thessaloniki. The week of 22–28 June saw a record 37,165 flights on 26 June, just shy of the all-time high of 37,228 set in 2019. Yet the Civil Aviation Service pushed back, noting that its own operational data for June paints a different picture: the average delay per flight at Athens International Airport fell to 4.43 minutes from 6.50 minutes a year earlier, a 31.77% drop in total delays. At the Athens-Macedonia Area Control Centre the average was 2.26 minutes, up from 1.62 minutes in 2025.

The Eurocontrol index does not show the real passenger experience. An increase in the Eurocontrol network does not mean an increase in delays.

Root causes: capacity, staffing, and geopolitics

Air traffic controllers argue the core issue is a chronic mismatch between scheduled flights and the airport's safe capacity. The president of the controllers' union, Panagiotis Psarros, said Athens airport is certified for 35 departures per hour but routinely has 40 to 45 scheduled, sometimes reaching 50 in the morning. Arrival capacity is 28 per hour while demand exceeds 45. Airport sources, meanwhile, blame incorrect parameterisation of the air traffic management system, which fails to adjust flow in real time, causing a domino effect across the schedule. They say agreed service levels are met less than 50% of the time.

When demand exceeds capacity, it is inevitable that delays are created that take two to three hours to be absorbed.

The Civil Aviation Service and the General Secretary of Transport pointed to seasonal demand and the rerouting of flights due to the Middle East crisis. Over 4,500 aircraft now transit Greek airspace daily, with 1,000 flights at Athens airport alone. Staffing shortages among controllers and ground personnel were acknowledged, with new hires in training but not expected to enter the system until next year.

What happens next

The airport company is planning investments of hundreds of millions of euros to increase capacity. Controllers are pushing for Athens to be moved from Level 2 slot coordination, which carries only recommendations, to Level 3 with binding sanctions for slot violations. The Civil Aviation Service said it monitors traffic daily and cooperates with Eurocontrol and airport operators, while the government stressed that the meeting was part of a regular series of consultations to manage an exceptionally demanding operational environment.