Record traffic causes major delays at Athens and Thessaloniki airports

Disruption overview

Record summer traffic is pushing Greek airports into sustained delays, with the Athens Flight Information Region handling more than 5,000 flights on 18 July 2026—its busiest day on record. Pressure is strongest at Athens International Airport and Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport, where passengers are seeing longer lines, aircraft waiting for new ATC slots, and knock-on schedule changes that can spread to island routes and flights elsewhere in Europe. Because the disruption is being driven by air-traffic-control capacity and staffing limits rather than airline action, compensation under EC 261 is unlikely in most cases. Airlines should still provide care and assistance during long delays, and you can use AirHelp's free flight checker to understand your rights.

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Disruption details

A record surge in summer air traffic is causing major delays at Athens International Airport (ATH) and Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport (SKG) in Greece. On 18 July 2026, the Athens Flight Information Region handled more than 5,000 flights in a single day, the highest level recorded there so far.

For passengers, this has meant longer waits before departure, tighter connections, and more uncertainty around arrival times. Greece is now responsible for roughly one in eight minutes of en-route delay across Europe's network, a clear rise on the same period last year.

The pressure is centered on Athens and the Makedonia control area, which covers Thessaloniki and several busy island gateways. Network data from late June and early July put both areas among the worst performers in Europe for average delay per flight.

Passengers are seeing that congestion in several ways:

• Longer lines at check-in and security in Athens

• Aircraft waiting on stands while new ATC departure slots are issued

• Holding patterns and short-notice schedule changes for island flights

• Late-night arrivals squeezing the turnaround time for the next day's departures

A mix of capacity and staffing problems is behind the delays. Sector limits, a shortage of fully qualified Greek air-traffic controllers, and slow upgrades to radar and navigation systems are all restricting how much traffic can move through the airspace.

Concerns about resilience have also grown after technical glitches earlier this year affected radio communications. That matters even more now that summer demand has moved beyond pandemic recovery levels and is pushing the system harder day after day.

Officials are trying to ease the pressure, but the fixes won't come quickly. Recruitment programs and wider European cooperation measures are under way, yet they aren't expected to add meaningful extra capacity before the end of the 2026 holiday season. For now, network managers are relying on tactical flow restrictions and asking airlines to spread departures across the day or accept reroutings. Those steps help protect safety, but they also make punctuality harder to maintain.

The disruption isn't staying inside Greece. Because Greek airspace sits on busy north-south and east-west corridors, delays there are affecting flights that only pass through the country as well. Rescheduled transits can throw off slot timing at departure airports elsewhere in Europe and bunch arrivals at other waypoints, which helps explain why delay minutes have been rising steadily since mid-June. The outlook is that pressure will stay high through at least September.

If you're flying to, from, or through Greece this summer, it's worth arriving early and keeping a close eye on airline updates.

Because these delays are linked to air-traffic-control capacity and staffing limits outside an airline's control, compensation under EC 261 is unlikely in most cases. Even so, your airline should still provide care and assistance during long delays, including food and refreshments, and accommodation if an overnight stay becomes necessary. If your flight is canceled, you should also be offered rerouting or a refund. And if you'd like to check your situation, AirHelp's free flight checker is a simple place to start.

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