Boosting airport capacity
About €2 billion will be invested by 2028; Athens Airport eyes 5 million extra passengers
Almost €2 billion will be invested by 2028 in expanding Greek airports’ capacity in view of the rapidly rising number of visitors.
At the same time, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED) is preparing to sell off some 20 small regional airports to private operators.
Athens International Airport (AIA) will spend €650 million by 2028 on expanding its capacity to over 33 million passengers, as well as to upgrade its services. In 2023, traffic volume was 28 million passengers.
This is only the first of three upgrade phases, according to the airport’s long-term business plan, whose implementation began in April 2023. The plan is called 50 Master Plan (50MAP) reflecting its goal to be able to serve 50 million passengers per year. Fraport Greece, which operates 14 regional airports, will begin a third phase of construction, including the rebuilding and expansion of several runways. This third phase will concern the airports at Kephalonia, Corfu, Kavala, Mykonos, Mytilene, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini and Zakynthos.
When the second phase is completed at the end of 2025, Fraport will have spent €534 million on airport improvements, €134 million from EU funds. A consortium of construction group GEK Terna with India’s GMR airports is currently developing the new airport at Iraklio, on the island of Crete, and is interested in bidding for the operation of Kalamata Airport.
TAIPED has set October 15 as the deadline for the submission of biding bids for Kalamata Airport. Interest has been intense since prospective bidders see great prospects in the Peloponnese as a tourist destination. Besides GEK Terna/GMR, bidders include three more consortiums: one includes France’s Egis Airport Operation, Aeroports de la Cote d’Azur and Greece’s Aktor; the second, Fraport, Delta Airport Investments, a Copelouzos Group company, and Pileas, part of the Constantakopoulos group that own the nearby Costamare resort; and the third, Mytilineos Group and Corporation America Airports.
