Historical overview of Athens international Airport

The history of Athens airport starts in 1971, when the second terminal at the old Athens-Ellinikon Airport was completed and it was already foreseeable that the previous site would not be sufficient. The alternative solution was either to choose a new land reclamation at sea or a new site to be developed. It was in this context that the municipality of Spata was proposed for the first time. Following a tender, construction was awarded on July 31, 1995 to a consortium led by Germany’s Hochtief AG in a public-private partnership project. Accordingly, Hochtief has a 39.97% stake.

This construction project was the largest infrastructure project in the modern history of Greece and the largest international airport project ever based on private financing; the new building cost just over 2 billion euros. A German consortium led by the construction group Hochtief and with the participation of ABB, Krantz-TKT, J&P and Frankfurt Airport AG (today Fraport) planned, financed and built the airport. The tower and the air traffic control building were planned and executed by J&P

The Byzantine chapel of St. Peter and Paul was moved 350 m to make room for the western runway, at the same time an archaeological excavation field could be developed under the church; Archaeological finds from the large construction site are exhibited in a small museum. In addition, around 4 million cubic meters of rock were removed from Zagani Hill for flight safety reasons. Outside there is a sculpture, one of the last works by George Zongolopoulos, as well as some casts of ancient sculptures.

The financing is designed as a project financing, i. This means that the collateral for the loans is not based on the creditworthiness of the owners, but on the future cash flow of the project. As part of a public-private partnership, it will be legally a private company with the Greek state (45% private / 55% state shareholders) for a period of 30 years (including construction period). operated.

In 2001 the complex was opened to traffic and the old airport was closed. In September 2011, the Greek Environment Ministry opened an 8.05 MW photovoltaic plant at the airport, which is expected to cover a third of the airport’s electricity consumption. In 2019, the airport broke the record of 25 million passengers for the first time