Rhodes Airport Guide: Diagoras and the Dodecanese Summer
Rhodes Airport welcomes around seven million passengers, most of them in summer. Codes, runway, terminal, airlines, routes, transport and spotting tips.
By The Aviation Hub
5 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Rhodes is one of the most popular holiday islands in Greece, and almost every visitor arrives by air. Rhodes Airport handled around seven million passengers in 2025, nearly all of them between April and October. It sits on the island’s north west coast, close to the sea and the resort villages that line it. British and German holidaymakers dominate the summer schedule, while Aegean and Olympic Air keep the island connected to Athens and the smaller Dodecanese islands all year.
Rhodes Airport at a Glance
The IATA code is RHO and the ICAO code is LGRP. The airport lies just north of the village of Paradisi, about 9 miles (14 km) south west of Rhodes town, at an elevation of 5 metres (17 ft). It has one runway and one passenger terminal, opened in 2005 and remodelled since 2017.
Traffic reached about 6.9 million passengers in 2024, up almost 13 per cent, and rose again to roughly 7.1 million in 2025. Aegean Airlines treats the field as a focus city, and Olympic Air uses it as a hub for island services. The Greek state owns the airport, and Fraport Greece runs it under a 40 year concession. Flight details and passenger notices are on the airport’s official website.
How Rhodes Got Its Airport
Civil aviation on Rhodes began after the Second World War at Maritsa, a military airfield inland from the current site that the Italians had built during their rule of the Dodecanese. Maritsa soon proved too small for the growing tourist trade, and a new airport was built on the coastal plain at Paradisi in the 1970s. Maritsa remains a military field.
The airport is named after Diagoras of Rhodes, a celebrated boxer of the fifth century BC who won at the Olympic Games and founded a family of champions. A new terminal opened in 2005. In December 2015 the privatisation of Rhodes and 13 other regional Greek airports was finalised, and the Fraport and Copelouzos joint venture took control from 2017.
Fraport’s master plan brought a remodelled terminal, a reorganised apron and a new fire station. Check in desks rose from 40 to 45, gates from 16 to 18, security lanes from 7 to 12 and baggage belts from four to five. The extra space arrived just in time. Rhodes Airport handled about 5.5 million passengers in 2019, the fourth highest total in Greece that year, and traffic has climbed well beyond that since the pandemic.
Runways at Rhodes Airport
Rhodes Airport has one asphalt runway, 06/24, which is 3,306 metres (10,846 ft) long. It runs parallel to the coast, with the sea on one side and the main coast road and the village of Paradisi on the other. The length comfortably handles the Airbus A321neo and Boeing 737 MAX jets that dominate the summer, as well as the occasional wide body charter.
The apron can take up to 20 narrow bodies at once, with three flexible stands that can handle larger types. Westerly and north westerly winds dominate the summer, so runway 24 is used most of the time, often with a gusty crosswind. Hills rise inland to the south east, shaping the approach paths.
Terminals and Airlines
All passengers use the single terminal, which can become crowded on summer Saturdays when tour operators change over their guests. The Fraport upgrades eased the worst bottlenecks, but long queues at security and passport control remain common at peak times, particularly for non Schengen flights to the UK.
Aegean flies to Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraklion and adds seasonal European routes. Olympic Air, part of the Aegean group, links Rhodes with Karpathos, Kasos, Kastellorizo and Sitia using turboprops. Sky Express adds domestic competition. In summer the field fills with easyJet, Ryanair, Jet2, TUI, Condor and Eurowings, alongside dozens of charter and leisure airlines from across Europe.
Routes and Destinations
The UK is the largest market at Rhodes Airport, with more than 1.3 million passengers in 2023. Germany followed with about 940,000, and domestic Greek traffic with about 850,000. Manchester, London Gatwick, Birmingham, Bristol and many other British airports have direct summer flights.
German cities, Scandinavia, Poland, Italy, Israel and the Netherlands add further demand, much of it on package holidays. Athens is the busiest year round route, served several times a day. The season runs from Easter to late October, and winter traffic shrinks to domestic flights and a handful of international services.
Getting to and from Rhodes Airport
Public buses run between the terminal and Rhodes town, taking around 30 minutes for a low fare. They suit independent travellers with light luggage. Most package holidaymakers transfer by coach to their hotels, which are spread along both coasts.
Taxis wait outside arrivals, and the ride to Rhodes town takes 20 to 25 minutes, with fares of roughly €30 (about £26). Faliraki is around 30 minutes away, and Lindos about an hour. Car hire desks are in the terminal, and parking at Rhodes Airport sits directly in front of the building. Book a taxi or transfer in advance on peak summer weekends.
Spotting and Photography
Rhodes Airport is a well known summer spotting destination. The coast road and the shoreline beside the runway give close views of aircraft, and several cafés and beach spots near Paradisi sit close to the runway. The variety of European leisure airlines on a summer Saturday is hard to match. Expect Jet2 and TUI 737s, Condor and Eurowings A320s, Scandinavian charter jets and Olympic Air Dash 8s within the same hour.
Morning light favours the landward side, while afternoon shots work better from the beach. Stay off the airport fence line, respect the military presence nearby and keep drones well away from the approach. Local police take security seriously.
What Comes Next
With Fraport’s upgrade complete, the challenge is managing the summer peaks. Airlines and the Greek government want to stretch the season into spring and autumn, which would spread traffic more evenly. Wildfires are a growing risk. In July 2023 fires in the south of the island forced thousands of holidaymakers from their hotels and disrupted flights.
Rhodes Airport will remain one of the key holiday gateways of the eastern Mediterranean as long as package tourism thrives. Growth now depends on longer seasons rather than bigger peaks, and on the island managing the pressure that mass tourism places on water, roads and the landscape. Explore other Greek island airports on the Airports of the World map.
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