Development and ownership AIA is located between the towns of
Markopoulo,
Koropi,
Spata and
Loutsa, about to the east of central Athens ( by road, due to intervening hills). The airport is named after
Elefthérios Venizélos, the prominent Cretan political figure and Prime Minister of Greece, who made a significant contribution to the development of Greek aviation and the
Hellenic Air Force in the 1930s. As to-date, the airport is operated by
AIA S.A. and ownership is divided between the Hellenic Republic (Greek State) and Private Sector in a 55%-45% stake following a
PPP scheme for the airport company. Currently, private investors include the Copelouzos Group (5%) and
PSP Investments of Canada (40%), following purchase of
Hochtief's shares. The airport was constructed to replace the now-closed
Athens (Ellinikon) International Airport, as the latter had reached its saturation point with no physical space for further growth. Studies for a new airport had been carried out from as early as the 1970s, with as many as 19 different locations being looked at before an area close to the town of
Spata was chosen as suitable. Its major features include two parallel runways being and long respectively. The airport has received approval from the
European Aviation Safety Agency and the
Federal Aviation Administration Greek government debt-crisis impact (2009–2013) The
Greek government-debt crisis reduced the overall passenger traffic of the airport for six consecutive years. Many long-haul airlines outright terminated service to the airport, while others chose to operate on a seasonal basis only, opting to terminate service during the winter months. Moreover, these problems were further exacerbated by the closure of
Olympic Airlines, which operated many long-haul flights to and from the airport. In 2013, the airport handled just above 12.5 million passengers, 3.2% fewer than in 2012 and lower by approximately 25% when compared to 2007's traffic, which was the all-time-high at that time. and the decision by Emirates,
Etihad Airways and
Qatar Airways to fly more frequently to and from Athens.
Delta Air Lines resumed their weekly flights and
American Airlines retained their seasonal schedules to/from USA with even more frequent connectivity. From 2017 onwards, year-round services to Singapore were scheduled to resume after more than five years, with flights operated by
Scoot. According to AIA published statistics, total traffic for 2015 achieved an impressive performance reaching almost 18.1 million passengers, an all-time-record for the airport at that time, increased by 19% on year-over-year basis and by 1.55 million (+9.4%) the previous best, which was the pre-crisis year 2007. In addition, over the same period, aircraft traffic exhibited a solid growth of 14% year-over-year. Moreover, in 2015 a significant rise (+38%) was recorded by transfer passengers, with the international to international transfer traffic marking an impressive increase (+60%) demonstrating the significant enhancement of the Athens airport connectivity.
Exceeding twenty million passengers (2016–2023) and beyond 2016 was a landmark year for the Athens International Airport, both for domestic and international destinations. Annual results reflected a solid performance for a third year in a row fueled by double-digit growth, this time passing the twenty million mark, increased by 10.7% on year-over-year basis. Healthy growth continued in 2017 with the airport showing traffic increase of 8.6% to a total of 21.7 million passengers, yet another all-time record for the Athens airport. During 2018, the airport achieved yet another record high, reporting increased passenger traffic by 11% to more than 24.1 million passengers. Equally, aircraft traffic achieved a new record with a reported annual growth of 10.8% to 217,094 movements. For the first ten months of 2023, the airport traffic shows signs of further increase with passenger numbers up by 19.5% to 24.4 million passengers and aircraft movements up by 15.2%. By the end of 2023, Athens saw about 28.17 million international and domestic passengers. This is a 10.2% increase from 2019. In the second half of June 2018
Emirates added an extra daily flight from its base in
Dubai Airport using the
Airbus A380 superjumbo, marking the first time the "superjumbo" operated at the airport with a scheduled flight for a long period of time. The A380 service was continued until the end of August 2018. == Terminals ==