Airline Launches Low-Cost Flights from New York to Athens

Low-cost airline Norse Atlantic Airways will launch its first flight to Athens, Greece from New York City this coming spring.

The upcoming JFK-Athens International Airport (ATH) flight is a summer seasonal route that will run between May 30 and Oct. 26 and take place up to five times a week on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

“This launch underscores our commitment to meeting the evolving travel needs of our passengers,” Norse founder Bjorn Tore Larsen said in a statement announcing the new route.

“We believe this route will not only cater to the demand for travel to Greece but will also create opportunities for cultural exchange and business collaborations between these two vibrant destinations.”

Norse Flights New York Athens as low as $249 each way

To draw attention to the new flight, Norse is offering those who commit to traveling in advance a promotional rate of $249 each way (the regular rate for the same flight booked last-minute or during the most popular summer travel dates will be around $1,000.)

The rate can be spotted on the carrier’s website on some mid-week days in September and October but the standard price currently seen for a weekend flight in June is at around $569.

Norse already operates flights to New York from London, Berlin, Rome, Paris and Oslo.

The airline also points out that the flight can be used as a connection point for other flights to the Greek islands, places like Crete, Milos, Mykonos and Santorini.

Tourism breaks record in Greece

Greece’s tourism figures have soared in the first 10 months of 2023 as the air and road arrivals data published by the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) show.

Specifically in the January-October 2023 period, 23 million international air arrivals were recorded, surpassing the January-October 2022 figures, showing an 11.5 percent increase.

In absolute numbers, in the first 10 months of the year, SETE shows 2.4 million additional arrivals. Compared to the January-October 2019 period, the increase is estimated at 12 percent.

Passenger traffic in the Athens International Airport set a new all-time record in 2023, totaling 28.2 million passengers, breaking the 28 million passengers barrier.

According to the airport’s published statistics, figures surpassed the 2022 and 2019 record-breaking years by increased passenger traffic of 24 percent and 10.2 percent respectively.

Some 8.8 million passengers were Greek nationals, with the figure increasing by 18.9 percent, while foreigners were up by 26.4 percent.

Passenger traffic in December was 1.86 million, up 17.1 percent from 2022 and up 13.6 percentfrom 2019. The number of flights also increased by 13.2 percent from 2022, to a total of 241,600.

According to the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, Eurocontrol, the upward trajectory is expected to continue in 2024, with preliminary numbers already showing an increased number of bookings by at least 10 percent up to early February.