Fraport to receive 14 airports over Easter
The 14 regional airports to be conceded to Fraport Greece will be ready for delivery around Easter, according to sources close to the process. The precise date cannot yet be determined as a number of technical and other issues remain pending both with the Greek state and the European Union, the same sources said.
The concession commencement date, when the one-off 1.23-billion-euro payment to the state will also be due, coincides with the beginning of increased traffic due to the holiday season, which will make the procedure that much more challenging for the contractor.
Notably, the 14 airports will see operations handed over from the Greek state to their new Fraport Greece staff overnight. This promises to be one of the most demanding exercises in airport history, as it concerns not one or two but 14 terminals simultaneously: These are Thessaloniki, Aktio and Kavala on the Greek mainland and 11 island airports – Hania, Corfu, Cephalonia, Cos, Myconos, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, Skiathos and Zakynthos.
Fraport says it expects the process to be seamless in terms of both security and efficiency, as it has been practicing the handovers at its headquarters in Kalogreza, north of Athens, for months now.
