Attempts by the Greek government to revive its struggling tourist trade by suspending landing charges are being thwarted by the refusal of greedy charter carriers to pass on the savings to passengers, according to a tour operator that specialises in the country.

The Greek ministries of transport and tourism have scrapped landing, takeoff and stopover fees at Greece’s regional airports until September — which should save the average family about £40 — but Noel Josephides, of Sunvil, says airlines are keeping the money.

"What annoys tour operators is that we can’t pass these savings on to our clients because the airlines are keeping the money," he said. "We’ve had no notification from any of the charter carriers, such as Monarch, Thomson Airways and Thomas Cook Airlines, that they intend doing otherwise."

We asked the carriers concerned to respond, but at the time of going to press neither Thomson nor Thomas Cook had replied. Monarch’s response was that it had not yet worked out how to return the cash.

"Monarch’s preference would be that the Greeks pass this saving directly to the tour operators via a reduction in the passenger-related taxes,” it said. “However, if no other method can be established then Monarch will endeavour to find a mechanism to enable this saving to be passed on to the tour operators."

The Greek tourism industry is facing disaster as plummeting visitor numbers threaten the closure of hundreds of tourism-related businesses.

In once-popular resorts, the cracks are already showing. While tourism to Turkey has increased, by 46 percent according to some estimates, dozens of hotels on Corfu, Crete, Rhodes and other islands remained closed over the Easter break, a period customarily marking the start of the summer season.

Nikos Angelopoulos, president of the tourist trade association SETE, said the combination of a global recession and more attractive exchange rates in non-eurozone countries such as Turkey and Egypt would lead to 3m fewer tourists visiting the country in 2009.

"Many hotels will stay closed in April and May, and hope to break even over the peak months," he said.

With summer bookings down by as much as 30%, hoteliers are offering operators discounts of up to 25% on peak rates, but according to SETE director general Georgios Drakopoulos, independent travellers will get the biggest bargains this season.

"Go direct to the hotel websites, or call them up, and that’s where you’ll find deals even better than those on offer by the tour operators," he said. Island-hopping will be a bargain this summer too, as Greek ferry operators pledged to keep winter tariffs, meaning savings of up to 50% on all sailings.