Emirates  has signed a new codeshare agreement with Greece’s largest carrier Aegean Airlines, giving its passengers increased connectivity to eight Greek cities through Athens with a single ticket.

Emirates will place its code on Aegean-operated flights to destinations including Kerkyra, Chania, Irakleion, Mikonos, Thira, Rhodes, Thessaloniki and Alexandropoulos, the Dubai-based airline said in a statement  on Monday.

Aegean will also place its code on Emirates-operated flights between Dubai and Athens for its passengers to book connections to Dubai and onward.

Starting in October, Emirates and Aegean will increase their joint codeshare network to include eight more European regional routes through Athens, including Bucharest, Belgrade and Naples.

The joint codeshare network will also expand westward on Emirates’ flights to New York Newark from Athens and New York JFK from Milan.

The move comes amida strong recovery in air travel demand.Global passenger traffic in June, measured in revenue passenger kilometres, was up 76.2 per cent compared with June 2021, propelled by a strong recovery in international travel, according to to latest estimates by International Air Transport Association. Globally, traffic is now at 70.8 per cent of pre-Covid-19 crisis levels, the industry body said.

Emirates currently serves Athens with 12 weekly flights operated by Boeing 777  wide-body aircraft. The additional codeshare routes will be subject to getting the necessary regulatory approvals, the airline said.

Emirates has codeshare agreements with more than 26 airlines, two rail partners and 110 interline partners worldwide.

The airline’s global connectivity spans more than 130 destinations across six continents through its hub in Dubai. It operates the world’s largest fleet of the wide-body Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft.

Aegean has a network of 138 destinations — 29 domestic and 109 international — to 44 countries, operated with a fleet of 64 aircraft including the Airbus A320 Neo and A321 Neo.

The National