On Saturday, August 10, 2024, Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Air Traffic Control handled 4,944 flights at the Athens F.I.R. (arrivals, departures and aircraft transits/overflights), an all-time record.

As an indication, EUROCONTROL’s Upper Area Control Centre in Maastricht, which controls one of the busiest airspaces in central Europe and four F.I.R.s (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and part of Germany), records in 2024 an average daily traffic of about 4,800 flights.

At Heraklion’s Nikos Kazantzakis Airport, the record-breaking rise in passenger service continues, as on Sunday 21 July 2024 the state-owned airport of Crete set an all-time record by handling 62,778 passengers in a 24-hour period.

As CAA Commander Mr. George Saunatsos notes, “The key players in supporting the rise recorded by the aviation indicators are the staff of the Authority. And the availability of air navigation systems throughout the summer season is significantly improved compared to the previous year. At the same time, the ambitious programme for the modernisation of air navigation systems and the strengthening of human resources, with emphasis on the Air Traffic Controllers and Electronics/ATSEP specialities, is underway in order to meet the operational and technological challenges of the coming years.”