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Greece ‘most recovered’ European destination this summer

Greece has the highest proportion of flights running this summer among European holiday destinations compared to 2019, according to data analytics firm Cirium.

Analysts compared the first weekend of the school summer holidays in 2019 and 2021 to identify the short-haul schedules of UK-based airlines.

For the weekend of July 23-25, 2021, UK airlines are scheduled to operate 2,102 flights with 392,750 seats from the UK to France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey.

This figure is 47% down on the comparable weekend of July 26-28 in 2019, when nearly 4,000 scheduled flights operated, equating to 699,471 seats.


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Greece was the destination which has recovered the most, according to Cirium, with 352 flights scheduled for the holiday weekend in 2021, at 95% of the 372 flights operated on the comparable weekend in 2019.

The UK airlines with the most flights to Greece over the weekend in question this year are: Tui Airways, with 96, easyJet, with 71, Jet2, with 66, and British Airways, with 60.

These are followed by Ryanair, with 39, Aegean Airlines, with 10, and Wizz Air UK, with nine.

In joint second place is Spain and Turkey, with flights to both countries at 66% of 2019 levels.

Flights operated to Spain fell from 1,520 in 2019 to 996 scheduled in 2021. Meanwhile, flights operated to Turkey dropped from 221 in 2019 to 146 in 2021

In third place is Portugal with 313 flights operated in 2019, compared to 205 scheduled to operate in 2021, so 41% of previous levels.

Italy saw 544 flights operated in 2019, and this compares to 190 scheduled to operate in 2021, a drop of 65%

France lies in fifth place, with 532 flights operated in 2019, whereas there are 135 flights scheduled for 2021, down 75%

And in sixth place is Germany, with 449 flights scheduled in 2019 compared to just 78 scheduled to operate for 2021, indicating a fall of 83%.

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