Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos

Athens International Airport "Eleftherios Venizelos" (Greek: Διεθνής Αερολιμένας Αθηνών «Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος», Diethnís Aeroliménas Athinón "Elefthérios Venizélos") (IATA: ATH, ICAO: LGAV), commonly initialized as "AIA", began operation on 28 March 2001 and is the primary international airport that serves the city of Athens and the region of Attica. It is Greece's busiest airport and it serves as the hub and main base of Aegean Airlines as well as other Greek airlines. The airport is currently in Group 2 of Airports Council International (10–25 million) and as of 2016, Athens International is the 27th busiest airport in Europe.

Overview

The airport currently has two terminals, the main terminal and the satellite terminal accessible by an underground link from the main terminal. It is designed to be extended in a modular approach over the ensuing years in order to accommodate increases in air travel. These extensions are planned in a six-phase framework. The first (and current) phase allowed the airport to accommodate 26 million passengers per year. When the airport originally opened, the current phase called for a capacity of only 16 million passengers per year; however, the capacity was able to increase without progressing to the next phase thanks to advanced IT logistics. The sixth and final expansion phase will allow the airport to accommodate an annual traffic of 50 million passengers, with the current layout leaving enough space for five more terminals to be added. As such, the parallel runway system currently in place has been designed to accommodate flight traffic with this high equivalent annual passenger load upon completion of the final expansion phase.

Main Terminal

The main terminal building handles the all intra-Schengen flights, as well as several non-Schengen flights. All of airport's 144 check-in desks are located in the Main Terminal and it has three separate levels, one for arrivals, one for departures and a food court level complete with a view of the eastern runway. Finally, the terminal is equipped with fourteen jet bridges and eleven belt conveyors for luggage.

Hall A is used for flights to Non-schengen countries and Non-European countries.
Hall B handles flights to Intra-schengen countries as well as domestic services.

Satellite Terminal

The satellite terminal has two levels, one for arrivals and the other for departures. It is easily accessible through an underground link complete with moving walkways. The terminal is equipped with ten jet bridges and is capable of handling annual traffic of six million passengers.

In recent years its parking stands were utilized for long term storage of airliners, specifically two ex-Olympic Airways Airbus A340-300s (both aircraft were transferred to its new owner in February 2017) and a Boeing 767-300ER of defunct Greek start-up carrier SkyGreece Airlines.

However, as of June 2017, the parking space of the satellite terminal is in full use for both Schengen and non-Schengen area flights and to accommodate increased traffic. From June 2017. Ryanair, Easyjet, Vueling and Eurowings are some of airlines that are using it.

Source: wikipedia.org