Budget Airline Jet2 to Increase Flights to Greece this Summer

British budget airline Jet2 is expanding its offerings in Greece this Summer, as it has introduced more frequent flights from the UK to destinations across the Mediterranean country.

Jet2.com, or Jet2, along with its vacation package provider Jet2Holidays, will help increase tourism between the two countries.

The company will provide over 500,000 more airline seats to Greece this summer compared to summer 2019, the most recent tourism season before the coronavirus pandemic. The figure represents an expansion of 86%.

Jet2 is offering new routes to 15 destinations in Greece from 10 airports across the UK, including Belfast International, Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle, and London Stansted.

Jet2Holidays, the UK’s second largest tour operator, will also begin offering vacation packages at over 150 resorts across Greece.

Jet2 introduces more routes to Greece

Starting in mid-April, the budget airline will begin offering flights to Athens four times each week from Birmingham and Manchester.

In addition to this new route, Jet2 will also expand its services by offering a number of new flights. These will include flights from Edinburgh to Skiathos, Santorini, Preveza, and Halkidiki, as well as flights from Bristol to Halkidiki and from Glasgow to Kos.

Jet2 has been lauded for its quality and affordability. Known for its many routes from the UK to top vacation destinations across Europe, Jet2 has been rated the best airline in Europe by Trip Advisor’s Traveler’s Choice Awards.

Jet2 CEO Steve Heapy stressed that this Summer’s tourism season will likely be as close to normal as it has been since the start of the pandemic.

“With international travel returning to normality, we are looking forward to our biggest and busiest ever summer in Greece, including the launch of flights and city breaks to Athens,” he stated.

“This summer marks a milestone moment for us in Greece, as we are growing exponentially and really putting down our marker as the UK’s leading airline and tour operator to Greece,” Heapy continued.

Jet2 is not the only airline to expand its offerings to Greece this summer.

This summer, American Airlines will operate 14 direct flights every week between eight large U.S. airports and Athens, Greece.

This “amounts to a vote of confidence in our country by a key market that adds high value to Greek tourism,” Greek Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias said in February.

Tourism in Greece has been growing at an unprecedented rate. In the first 10 months of 2021 from January to October, tourism revenues in Greece exceeded 10 billion euros ($11.35 billion) compared to 4.21 billion euros ($4.78 billion) in 2020 and 17.56 billion euros ($19.93 billion) in pre-COVID 2019, according to the Bank of Greece.

Looking at arrivals, Greece saw the number of non-resident visitors rise by 93.8% while  generated revenue was up by 142.0% against the same period in 2020, thus recouping 46% and 58% respectively of the record levels seen in 2019.