It’s around 8:00am at Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens and the line for “Non-EU Passport Holders” is, quite literally, out the door.
There are the few Greek passport holders that pass the un-manned biometric passport control, as well as those lucky dual U.S. and Greek passport holders that swagger past the hordes of Americans, waiting in the endless, zig-zagging line that is longer than the line at Disney’s Magic Mountain on a holiday weekend.
Just outside, parked along the perimeter of the A Terminal which serves the “Extra-Schengen” arrivals, is a row of airplanes, representing the biggest U.S. airlines. If you didn’t notice the “Welcome to Aθens” message on the terminal building, you’d think it was an airport in the United States. United, American, Delta– and other American Airlines aircraft all in a row with a random Emirati, Turkish Airlines or El Al not far.
Inside, the Americans are getting impatient. The line isn’t moving. Loud-talking Karens start complaining, forgetting that U.S. airports are just as bad on the return. Oh yea, and as if the Greek passport agents even care that people are complaining.
And just as the line begins to get smaller, the Charlotte flight just emptied its three hundred-or so American southerners. And here comes Delta’s second JFK flight.
The summer 2025 tourist season– and beyond into November– is poised to be “the year of the Americans,” as an unprecedented number of tourists from the United States are choosing Greece as their holiday destination.
According to the Air Data Tracker by INSETE (Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation),the United States is quickly becoming a major player in Greek tourism.
In 2025, there are a total of 727,000 available seats on all flights from the United States to Greece. This is an increase of almost 19% over the previous year.
What this translates to in simple terms: U.S. airlines are responding to the surge in American travelers that want to visit Greece. They’re not only adding additional flights from existing destinations like New York, Atlanta and Chicago. Airlines are getting creative and adding new routes all together.
The exponential spike would have sounded like a pipe dream only a decade ago, when community activists in cities like Chicago started Facebook pages calling on airlines to start a non-stop flight between the Windy City and Athens.
Incidentally, Chicago now has two airlines competing for the traveler to Greece, with both United and American adding service over the past several years.
Ft. Worth, TX-based American Airlines have significantly increased their flight schedules to Greece with a total of 103 weekly non-stop flights for the summer season. This represents a substantial rise from the 82 flights operated the previous year and nearly doubles the number from five years ago.
A new non-stop flight from Los Angeles to Athens, operated by Norse Atlantic Airways is launching this summer, as is the first-ever Charlotte to Athens service operated by United Airlines.
United Airlines, Delta Airlines and Emirates are increasing frequencies on existing routes from cities like New York, Atlanta, and Chicago and adding larger airplanes on some Athens flights.
Delta Airlines has decided to extend its operations into the winter months, believing that many Americans will opt for the cooler, less-crowded months of autumn. American Airlines and United Airlines have also expanded their schedules, now offering flights through November.
Many factors have led to this “American invasion” of Greece. It certainly didn’t happen overnight.
Greece’s stability and Turkey’s instability certainly play into this scenario of more and more Americans choosing Greece for their summer holidays, as does the overall “growing up” or “maturity” of the actual product called “the Greek tourist industry.”
New hotels, new marinas, new highways… An efficient network of modernized airports (revamped and operated by German company Fraport) and luxury mega projects like Costa Navarino have all been contributing factors. This “aligning of the stars” that has taken place has created ideal conditions for the big-spending, high-expectation U.S. traveler to choose Greece over other destinations.
Another critical factor– perhaps the glue that kept this all together and moving collectively forward was the trust factor. U.S. airline executives began believing in the “concept” of Greek tourism and began taking seriously the Greek government delegations visiting their headquarters, asking for new flights.
And orchestrating a lot of this trust-building (usually behind the scenes and never jumping in for the photo-op with the press-hungry bureaucrats) was an unassuming Greek American guy from Brooklyn named Peter Vlitas.
Peter’s current job as Executive Vice President of Partner Relations at Internova Travel, as well as almost two decades of experience as Senior Vice President of Airline Sales and Marketing of Protravel International, has brought him into regular contact with the corporate leaders of the U.S. airline industry.
A proud Greek American and a huge champion of Greece, Peter’s soft power approach has kept the topic of Greece on the front burner of a lot of conversations at airline headquarters over the years.
And thus, as the statistics keep rolling in, and the biggest airlines in the United States keep adding more and more flights, more and more Americans visit Greece. And in turn, Greece continues to share its light, its history and its beauty, while flourishing and prospering.
