Athens Airport Guide: Greece’s Gateway Since 2001
Athens Airport replaced the cramped Ellinikon in 2001 and now handles 34 million passengers a year. Read how Aegean's hub works and where to watch it.
By The Aviation Hub
7 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos lies in the Mesogeia plain near Spata, about 12 miles (20 km) east of the centre of the Greek capital. It opened in 2001 to replace the overcrowded seaside airport at Ellinikon and has grown into the hub of Aegean Airlines and the main gateway to the Greek islands. Athens Airport handled around 34 million passengers in 2025, a record, with traffic rising steadily since the end of the Greek debt crisis. Two long parallel runways and a modular terminal give it room to grow for decades.
Athens Airport at a Glance
The codes are ATH and LGAV. The field sits at 308 ft (94 m) above sea level on flat farmland between the towns of Spata, Koropi and Markopoulo, with Mount Hymettus separating it from the city and the Attiki Odos motorway running straight to the terminal. There are two parallel runways, a main terminal and a satellite building connected by an underground walkway.
Athens Airport handled roughly 34 million passengers and 284,000 aircraft movements in 2025, up almost seven per cent on the previous year. Aegean Airlines and its subsidiary Olympic Air are the hub carriers, and Sky Express and Ryanair run bases. Athens International Airport SA operates the field under a concession that originally ran for 30 years from 1996 and has since been extended, with the Greek state and private investors including AviAlliance and the Copelouzos Group among the shareholders. Flight data and transport details are on the airport’s official website.
A Short History of Eleftherios Venizelos
Athens was served for 60 years by Ellinikon, a field on the coast south of the city that Olympic Airways made famous and that ran out of space long before it closed. Plans for a replacement at Spata were first drawn in the 1970s, but political and financial obstacles delayed everything until a 1996 agreement with a consortium led by the German contractor Hochtief. Construction took just over four years.
The new airport opened on 28 March 2001 with Ellinikon closing the same night. It took the name of Eleftherios Venizelos, the statesman who led Greece through the early 20th century and whose reforms shaped the modern state. The 2004 Olympic Games were its first big test, passed without serious trouble.
The debt crisis after 2009 brought years of stagnation and the collapse of the original Olympic Airlines, but traffic recovered sharply from 2014 as tourism boomed. In 2019 the concession was extended to 2046, and the operating company listed on the Athens stock exchange in 2024. A major expansion of the main terminal is now planned.
Runways at Athens Airport
Athens Airport has two parallel asphalt runways. Runway 03R/21L is 4,000 m (13,123 ft) long and 03L/21R is 3,800 m (12,467 ft), both 45 m wide. The long dimensions reflect hot summer temperatures and the Boeing 777 and Airbus A350-900 operations of carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad. The spacing allows independent parallel operations.
Northerly winds are the norm for most of the year, so landings on 03L and 03R predominate, with aircraft approaching over the farmland and vineyards near Markopoulo. The summer meltemi wind reinforces that pattern. Southerly flow, more common in winter, switches to approaches on the 21 runways over Rafina and Artemida.
The airport has no curfew and handles overnight Gulf, Asian and cargo flights freely. In April 2011 an Airbus A380 made an emergency medical diversion here, the first visit of the type, and Emirates later flew the A380 on scheduled service for a period in 2018.
Terminals and Airlines
The main terminal is a single long building. Hall A handles non Schengen and intercontinental flights, with British Airways, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Delta, United, American, Air Canada and El Al. Hall B handles Schengen and domestic flights and is the busiest part of the airport, with Aegean, Olympic Air, Sky Express, Lufthansa, Swiss, Air France, KLM and the low cost carriers. It has 153 check in desks and 14 air bridges, so many Aegean flights board from remote stands by bus.
The satellite terminal is reached by an underground link with moving walkways and adds ten air bridge gates and capacity for six million passengers a year. Aegean’s lounges in both halls are the main premium facilities. Ryanair and easyJet have kept fares low on routes once dominated by Olympic.
Routes and Destinations
Thessaloniki is the busiest domestic route from Athens Airport, with Aegean, Sky Express and Ryanair competing. Heraklion, Santorini, Chania and Rhodes follow, and in summer the island network from Athens is immense, with dozens of destinations served several times a day. Aegean’s Airbus A320neo and A321neo fleet does most of that work.
London led the European routes in 2025, followed by Larnaca, Istanbul, Paris and Rome. Intercontinentally, Tel Aviv, New York, Cairo, Doha and Dubai were the strongest. Delta, United and American fly to New York, Newark, Atlanta, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia, and Emirates continues its Dubai service onward to Newark. The longest flight is American’s seasonal service to Dallas Fort Worth at roughly 6,250 miles (10,050 km), while Scoot links Singapore and IndiGo serves Delhi and Mumbai. Aegean itself reaches as far as Riyadh, Jeddah, Dubai and Baghdad with its A321neos.
Seasonality is extreme. August traffic is more than double that of January, and many of the island routes and transatlantic frequencies vanish in winter. Cargo is modest, concentrated in the airport’s freight village.
Getting to and from Athens Airport
A railway station beside the terminal, reached by an elevated walkway, serves both the Athens Metro and the Proastiakos suburban rail. Metro Line 3 runs to Syntagma in the city centre in about 40 minutes and on to Piraeus in just over an hour, for a fare of around €9. Suburban trains reach the main railway station and Kiato in the Peloponnese. Metro is the cheapest fast option.
Express buses X95 to Syntagma, X96 to Piraeus and X93 to the Kifissos intercity bus station run around the clock and cost about €5.50, the cheapest sensible option and useful when the metro is closed. By road, the Attiki Odos toll motorway reaches the northern suburbs in 30 minutes and the city centre in 40 to 60 minutes. A taxi to the centre costs a flat €40 by day and €55 at night. Parking is plentiful, with 1,357 short term spaces in P1 and P2 and 5,802 long term spaces in P3.
Spotting and Photography
The open landscape around Athens Airport is kind to spotters. The roads around Markopoulo near the 03L and 03R thresholds give good views of arrivals in the prevailing northerly wind, with aircraft low over the fields. On southerly days the roads towards Artemida and Rafina, northeast of the field, catch landings on the 21 runways. The upper level of the departures forecourt and the car parks give views of the aprons.
Light is strong and clear. Mornings suit positions east of the runways and afternoons the western side, and the hills behind provide a backdrop that is hard to beat. Aegean’s A320neo family dominates, with Emirates Boeing 777-300ERs, Qatar Airways A350s, the American wide bodies in summer and Sky Express ATR 72s providing variety.
Greek police are generally tolerant, but avoid photographing anything beyond the civil aprons. Stay on public roads, do not park in field entrances and respect private farmland.
What Comes Next
Athens Airport was designed around a six phase modular plan with room for five more terminals and capacity to reach 50 million passengers. The next expansion of the main terminal will add check in desks, gates, lounges and shops to lift capacity well beyond today’s level. Beyond that, further phases can be added as demand requires without rebuilding what exists.
With Greek tourism at record levels and Aegean adding longer routes, Athens Airport is heading for steady growth and no shortage of land to put it on. Compare the Mediterranean gateways on the Airports of the World map.
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