Air Astana is planning to serve Heraklion and potentially Thessaloniki this summer. It'll be the first time scheduled flights have run from Kazakhstan to Heraklion, Crete – at least in the past 18 years. However, Ellinair operated Almaty and Nur-Sultan to Thessaloniki between 2015 and 2019.While further details (start dates, Kazak airport(s), frequency, aircraft, prices, times) aren't yet available, it is being facilitated by the ban on Russian carriers.

What's happening?

If one thing has been evident during the pandemic, it is that airlines have been more willing and able to try new routes. It has been a period of experimentation, with available aircraft facilitating and smoothing the process. Airlines have increasingly added leisure routes, the primary source of demand in the past two years.

Spare a thought for Air Astana. While it has faced the same headwind, especially from near-neighbor China broadly shutting its border, it is now heavily impacted by the loss of flights to Russia because of the withdrawal of insurance for flights to the nation. Typically, Russia is by far its primary international market.

More leisure routes

Like many others, Air Astana has been trying new leisure routes, with Colombo, Male, Phuket, and Podgorica, all introduced since the pandemic struck.

This coming summer is no exception, with scheduled services to Heraklion (and potentially Thessaloniki) coming. Previously, Heraklion was off-limits to Air Astana due to no slot availability, at least at the required times. Speaking exclusively to Simple Flying, Air Astana's CEO said:

"We're looking to start flights to Heraklion... [by the] end of next month [April]. It's interesting because we were going to fly to Thessaloniki, and we might still fly to Thessaloniki.

"One of the reasons that drove it was because we couldn't get slots at Heraklion because they were all taken by the Russian carriers. Well, of course, now there are no Russian carriers [flying there], so you know we're moving to get slots in Heraklion as quickly as possible [hence the value of slots]."

Airport slots: a very quick summary

It's not just major or renowned airports that are heavily slot-constrained – many smaller airports with limited capacity worldwide are too. And in the summer, many tourist hotspots, especially in Greece and Spain, suffer the same fate.

"As you'd expect, this is because demand from airlines for flights is so strong, relative to capacity and infrastructure, that it must be heavily coordinated. And not just runways but all infrastructure, including terminals."

Airport capacity is coordinated through a set of rules. According to IATA, the trade body for airlines, the primary objective of airport coordination is "to ensure the most efficient use of airport infrastructure to maximize benefits to the greatest number of airport users."

Heraklion in the summer

Heraklion is no different. While there is no slot restriction during the winter (there is very little demand and therefore no problem accommodating it), it is a level three slot-coordinated airport in the summer. According to IATA, a level three airport is where:

• Demand for airport infrastructure significantly exceeds the airport's capacity during the relevant period
• Expansion of airport infrastructure to meet demand is not possible in the short-term
• Attempts to revolve the problem through voluntary schedule adjustments have failed or are ineffective
• As a result... it is necessary for airlines... to have a slot allocated by a coordinator... to arrive or depart at the airport during the period when slot allocation occurs [for Heraklion, only in the summer]

Are you planning a trip to Greece this summer? Let us know in the comments.