Due To Flight Reduction, Athens Airport Experienced Delays

Photo: Skytraxratings

JAKARTA - Athens International Airport in Greece has experienced flight delays since Thursday after air traffic controllers limited the number of flights they were handling per hour, according to daily reports by Kathimerini, quoted from ANTARA, Sunday, September 28.

In a move related to disputes over bonuses and changes to the company's structure, air traffic controllers have reduced the number of aircraft they handle per hour, which has caused flight delays at Athens International Airport since Thursday.

On Thursday, air traffic control limited traffic at airports to 23 arrivals per hour in October, down from 31 and 33 departures, compared to 36.

On Friday, arrivals increased to 28 per hour, compared to 36 over the summer.

Aegean Airlines said on Friday that air traffic controllers in Athens had reduced arrival capacity by about 25 percent, causing an increasingly long morning delay of 30 to 40 minutes over time.

The recent delay follows Ryanair's announcement in August that the failure of air traffic control equipment at Athens International Airport has caused flight delays to and from Greece, affecting 12 of its flights and impacting more than 2,000 Ryanair passengers.

"So far in 2025, more than 5,000 Ryanair flights and more than 900,000 Ryanair passengers have experienced unfair delays due to ATC Greece's management errors and staff shortages, making Greece's ATC service its 5th worst-case performance in terms of delays in Europe," according to a statement. official.

In July, the airport also experienced an increasingly severe delay, with only 48 percent of flights departing within 15 minutes of schedule, down from 59 percent in July last year.