Athens International Airport is rethinking its expansion plans as it has become obvious that growth is much faster than expected.
The expansion of the main and satellite terminals was undertaken on the premise that the airport’s annual traffic volume would grow to 40 million passengers by 2032 and 50 million in the longer-term.
But the growth of the tourism industry, and Athens’ emergence as a year-round destination and an important hub, have made a mockery of these predictions. It is now thought that the 40 million number will likely be reached by 2028, with 50 million following not far behind.
The Civil Aviation Authority concurs with that view: it has even sent a letter to AIA’s management saying that the expansion project, now at the bidding stage, must be bolder and on a bigger scale.
The airport opened in March 2001 to replace the aging facilities at Ellinikon as Athens was preparing to host the 2004 Summer Olympics. It is clearly outgrowing the original capacity it was planned for. The law that allowed the construction of the new airport put the capacity of the planned airport at 26 million passengers annually and called for expansion plans starting in 2018-19.
