Athens International Airport: the impact of the economic crisis on traffic and the way to recovery - a data analytics study

Abstract

2008’s global recession provoked harsh stagnation or declination on the operation and traffic of European airports as a result of the crisis in the airlines industry. This thesis discusses the impact of the economic crisis on the traffic of Greece’s main hub airport, Athens International Airport (AIA). A data analysis of AIA’s data warehouse is conducted via a business intelligence platform namely TARGIT DECISION SUITE 2017 for the period from year 2010 to year 2016. The analysis compares information of the crisis period (2010-2013) to this of the after-crisis period (2014-2016). The analysis gives insights of the remarkable increase in airport’s traffic after indicative year 2013 that lead to discussions about how AIA managed to recover from recession. The contract with a strong national airline as well as with a solid low-cost carrier seems to have contributed most to this recovery.