Rhodes Diagoras Airport

For millions of vacationers, it is the first thing they see of the island: Rhodes Diagoras Airport lies right on the west coast, between the sea and the hills, and handles one leisure airliner after another in summer. With more than seven million passengers in 2025, RHO is among the busiest airports in Greece. For spotters, Rhodes is a classic vacation airport – a single runway, no official observation platform, but an airline mix from all over Europe and Israel that offers you more variety on a good summer morning than many a big hub.

From Maritsa to Paradisi

The aviation history of Rhodes does not begin on the coast but in the interior of the island. After the Second World War, civil air traffic began at the Maritsa airfield, a field a few kilometers inland that now serves as a military airfield. For decades, the aircraft of the then flag carrier Olympic Airways and the first charter flights with vacationers from northern Europe landed there.

With the package tourism of the 1970s, Maritsa reached its limits. Greece therefore built a new airport on the flat west coast, right next to the village of Paradisi. It went into operation on June 28, 1977, and Maritsa has been a purely military airfield ever since. This duality is still important for spotters today: the civil airport is a relaxed vacation airport, while the old field inland is a military restricted area where cameras have no business.

The airport is named after Diagoras of Rhodes, a boxer of antiquity who won at the Olympic Games. In English, the airport is officially called Rhodes International Airport “Diagoras”; in everyday use, most people simply say Rhodes Airport or RHO.

Growth with tourism

The traffic curve of Rhodes is the curve of the Greek summer vacation. In the mid-1990s, the airport was at around two and a half million passengers, and in 1999 it cracked the three-million mark for the first time. Because charter traffic kept growing, an additional terminal building was added in the mid-2000s, which at first mainly handled flights outside the Schengen Area.

After 2010, things went decidedly upward once more: in 2017 there were just over 5.3 million passengers, in 2019 around 5.5 million – putting Rhodes in fourth place among Greek airports. The pandemic caused the figure to plunge to just over 1.5 million in 2020. The recovery was all the faster: as early as 2022, Rhodes was above the pre-crisis level with almost 5.9 million passengers, and in 2024 it was almost 6.9 million with around 46,700 aircraft movements. In 2025, according to Fraport Greece, the airport exceeded the mark of seven million passengers for the first time.

Extreme seasonality is typical for a vacation airport. By far the largest part of these passengers travels between April and October. In December 2025, the airport counted just over 72,000 passengers – a fraction of what passes through the terminals in a single week in midsummer.

Fraport Greece takes over

An important turning point came with the privatization of the Greek regional airports. In December 2015, the state privatization fund signed the contract with a consortium of the Frankfurt airport group Fraport and the Greek Copelouzos Group. It took over 14 regional airports for 40 years, including, besides Rhodes, Kos Airport, Corfu Airport and Thessaloniki Airport. The Greek state remains the owner of the airports.

Fraport Greece took over operations before the 2017 summer season, and renovations began in November of the same year. First it was about the basics: cleanliness, better lighting and markings on the apron, new restrooms, fire protection and a new fire station. After that, the terminal was rebuilt and the apron reorganized. The number of check-in counters rose from 40 to 45, departure gates from 16 to 18, security checkpoints grew from seven to twelve lanes, and there have been five baggage belts instead of four since then. The work was completed in 2020.

The layout: one runway between coast and hills

The airport is clearly laid out. A single asphalt runway, 3,305 meters long and 60 meters wide, runs roughly parallel to the coast, from northeast to southwest. Between the runway and the sea lies a narrow strip with a beach path; on the other side are the terminals, the apron, the main road and, behind it, the hills around Paradisi.

According to reference works, the apron has room for up to 20 aircraft the size of an A320 or a Boeing 737. Three positions are additionally designed for larger types – for example an A330, as it occasionally turns up in vacation traffic. You also see a Boeing 757, which despite its length is a narrowbody aircraft, in charter traffic now and then. For general aviation, there is a small apron of its own with three parking spots.

There is a small confusion with the runway designation. In current reference works, the runway is listed as 06/24, while many spotter guides and older documents still speak of 07/25. The same runway is meant. Such renamings are not unusual, because runway designations follow the magnetic heading, which slowly shifts over the years. If you read about “Runway 25” in a travel report, today’s 24 is meant. What lies behind the numbers is explained in the article Understanding runway direction in use at airports.

Runway direction in use: mostly 24

According to experienced spotters, landings and takeoffs at Rhodes are mostly in direction 24 (25 in the guides). Aircraft then come in from the northeast, pass over the coast and touch down toward Paradisi. If operations run the other way, that is toward 06, the approaches come from the southwest over the hills behind the village.

Because there is only one runway, planning is simpler than at big hubs: you do not have to find out which runway is used for takeoffs and which for landings, only know the direction. You should still take a look at the wind beforehand. How that works with weather maps is covered in the article on Windy and other weather maps.

Olympic Air, Aegean and the island hoppers

Year-round, it is mainly the Greek airlines that keep operations running. Olympic Air uses Rhodes as a junction for its turboprop connections in the Dodecanese. With the ATR 42-600 and ATR 72-600, flights go to small islands such as Karpathos, Kasos and Kastellorizo. If you like turboprops, you get movements here that hardly exist at German airports. The article Telling the ATR 42/72 and Dash 8 apart helps with telling them apart.

The parent company Aegean Airlines connects Rhodes with Athens Airport and Thessaloniki, flying jets of the Airbus A320 family, including the A320neo and A321neo. SKY express also serves Rhodes, with ATR turboprops and Airbus jets – to Athens, Kos, Kalymnos and Leros, among others.

The summer: leisure airliners from all over Europe

From spring, Rhodes transforms. Airlines you otherwise see scattered across half of Europe then land on a single runway. In 2023, most passengers came from the United Kingdom, followed by Germany and Greek domestic traffic. Poland, Israel, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, France and Finland followed.

The picture is correspondingly colorful. From the United Kingdom, Jet2, TUI Airways and easyJet fly, among others. From the German-speaking region come Condor, TUIfly, Discover Airlines, Eurowings, Marabu and Edelweiss. Added to these are low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and Wizz Air, leisure airlines such as Smartwings and Neos as well as the offshoots of the TUI group from Belgium and the Netherlands. An overview of the TUI network is provided by the page on TUI airlines.

A highlight for many spotters are the flights from Israel. El Al, Israir and Arkia serve Rhodes in summer, partly several times a day. According to experience reports, additional security staff are out and about at these arrivals – so skip ladders at the fence and keep a low profile.

In terms of types, the narrowbody world dominates: Boeing 737-800 and 737 MAX 8, the A320 and the A321 in old and new variants. If you want to tell the many variants apart reliably, the articles A320neo or ceo? and Telling Boeing 737 generations apart help.

Which airlines actually fly in a given season changes every year. As of October 2026, the rule is: check the current schedules before your trip instead of relying on old lists. Why the summer and winter schedules make such a big difference is explained in the article IATA summer and winter schedule.

Spotting on Rhodes: the most important locations

There is no official observation deck. Over the years, though, the spotter community has collected a whole series of locations around the runway. Roughly, they can be divided into four groups.

In the terminal: After security, you have a view of the apron and taxiways from the departure area through largely clear panes. That is ideal for the last photos before the flight home. Parked aircraft and ground equipment sometimes block the view, however.

Along the access road and the parallel road: On the landside there are several fence spots at the airport access road, near the rental car stations and on the road that runs parallel to the runway. From there you see taxiways, the runway and aircraft rolling out. A spot near a small sports field is considered a good all-rounder because a large share of landing aircraft vacate the runway there. For a better view over the fence, you often need one or two steps of a step ladder.

On the hills: Behind Paradisi there are elevated locations with a view of takeoffs toward the southwest, and another hill lies opposite the rental car area and shows approaches with the sea in the background. The access roads are partly bad gravel tracks, and it is not always clear whether you are standing on public or private land. When operations run toward 06, a restaurant with a view of the runway is a popular meeting point – you order something there, of course.

On the beach path: A narrow path runs between the runway and the sea under the approach. From here you photograph landings, takeoffs and line-ups at the runway end. Because the sun then stands in the west over the sea, this area is worthwhile mainly in the late afternoon and evening. A ruined building formerly popular for getting elevation is now fenced off according to community reports, and the fence at the beach path has also been renewed.

Light, heat and season

Because the runway runs from northeast to southwest and the sea lies to the west, the light moves from the landside to the seaside over the course of the day. In the morning and around midday, you are well placed at the spots on the terminal and road side; in the late afternoon and evening, the locations at the beach path have the advantage. When the sun is where, you plan best with the article on the sun position at the photo spot.

The biggest challenge is the heat. In summer, the air above asphalt and dry terrain shimmers strongly from late morning, especially with long focal lengths. How to counter it is covered in the article on heat shimmer in aircraft photography. Also pack plenty of water, sun protection and a hat – at most spots there is no shade. Tips for this are given by the article Plane spotting in summer.

When it comes to season, Rhodes is clear-cut: peak season runs from June to August, there is already much less going on in the shoulder months, and from about November to April only the Greek domestic flights remain. A spotting trip in winter is therefore hardly worthwhile, while a beach vacation with a few spotting mornings in summer is all the more so.

Getting to the airport

The airport lies around 13 to 14 kilometers southwest of Rhodes Town on the coastal road of the west side. Scheduled buses shuttle between the town and the airport, according to reference works about every 90 minutes from early morning until late evening. Taxis and numerous rental car companies right at the terminal are also available.

For the terminal, the bus is enough. For the spots around the runway, though, you can hardly manage without a car, because the locations lie on side roads, dirt tracks and at the beach. You find food and drinks in the village of Paradisi right next to the airport, restrooms in the terminal. General tips on getting there are in the article Getting to the spot, and how to fit spotting and a family vacation together is shown in the article Plane spotting on vacation.

Rhodes and the other vacation airports

Rhodes is one of many Greek vacation airports, and each has its own character. Its neighbor Kos Airport is smaller but similarly shaped by charter traffic. On Crete, Heraklion Airport awaits with spectacular approaches over the sea. If you are looking for the country’s most famous spots, plan in Kanoni at Corfu Airport or the runway end at Skiathos.

The Greece guide for spotters gives you an overview of the whole country. And how to plan a vacation from the start so that the best airport days fit into the travel plan is shown in the article Planning a spotting vacation.

Conclusion

Rhodes Airport is a textbook example of a Greek vacation airport. Sleepy in winter, a beehive in summer: Jet2, TUI, Condor, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Israeli airlines and Olympic turboprops take turns on a single runway, against a backdrop of sea, beach and hills. With more than seven million passengers in 2025, the airport under Fraport Greece set a new record.

Spotting here is not comfortable, though. There is no visitor terrace, many spots are at fences or on private land, new fences have changed some classics, and the midday heat makes photos hard. If you head out early in the morning or in the evening, know the runway direction in use and stick to the Greek rules of the game, you still come home from vacation with a well-filled memory card.