Athens Airport

Location
Car: Opened on 29/03/2001, the airport is about 28 km or 18 miles east of Athens city centre, near the Athens suburbs Koropi, Spata-Loutsa and Markopoulo. From the south, Athens airport can be reached on the six lane motorway Attiki Odos (toll motorway). The suburbs southeast of the capital (eg Ilisia, Zografou, Vyronas, Kaisariani, Papagou, Holargos, Ag. Paraskevi) are connected to the airport via the Ymitos on the ring road, several exits lead to the airport. Toll-free access to the airport is on Lavriou Avenue and other surrounding major roads. Coming from the southern suburbs or Piraeus, the toll can be avoided using Possidonos Avenue, Vouliagmenis Avenue, Vari-Koropi Avenue and then Attiki Odos motorway. The short-term parking zones P1 and P2 with a total of 1360 spaces are located directly outside the arrivals zone of the main terminal. Long term parking is available in zone P3 on the Attiki Odos motorway, with approximately 3378 parking spaces.

Train and bus: Athens and the port of Piraeus may be reached using the Metro Line 3 between 5.30 am and midnight. The S-Bahn and the airport buses also serve the city. Overall, three national bus lines and six express bus lines X 92 - X 97 operate services to the airport. The metro line 3 runs from the airport to the major central metro station Monastiraki, where you change to line 1 to Piraeus and Kifissia. Passengers travelling to or from the railway station Larisis can use Line 3 to Syntagma station and then use the underground line 2. The journey to Syntagma or Monastiraki takes about 30 minutes depending on the time of day, to Piraeus approximately 60 minutes. There is also a rail link from the airport to Corinth.

Taxi: there are taxi ranks at the arrivals hall exit 3.

History
The construction of Athens International Airport - Eleftherios Venizelos was the largest infrastructure project in the modern history of Greece and also the largest international airport project using private funding. On 31.07.1995, the Greek government and a private consortium led by HOCHTIEF Aktiengesellschaft (Germany) signed the Airport Development Agreement (ADA), with the common goal of developing a new international airport at Spata, as the former Hellinikon Airport was no longer large enough to deal with the growing numbers of passengers. The administrator, Athens International Airport SA (Diethnis Aerolimenas Athinon AE) is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is to be operated as a PPP for 30 years including the building period. The Greek state owns 55% and the three private shareholders the remaining 45%.