Facts & Figures
Athens International Airport (AIA) El. Venizelos, opened in 2011 and has become one of the major hubs for air travel in southeastern Europe. It is located in Spata, at Eastern Attica and it is the biggest airport of Greece. It has two runways and a terminal with two concourses housing 44 gates and serves over 20 million passengers annually. The airport was designed to handle up to 50 million passengers/per year. AIA had 268,000 flight movement in 2024. The home carriers are Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air.
Noise Pollution and the Community
The airport is located about 20 km to the east of central Athens.
Aircraft noise standards in Greece are set as follows: 70 dB for the Lden index (24 hours) and 60 dB for the Lnight index (8 hours): According to the airport, this represents an improvement of approximately 10%. No technical improvements have been implemented to justify this reduction, and there is no explanation as to what technical or other tool was used or how such a significant improvement occurred in the affected population, making the accuracy of the data questionable.
Citizens’ Influence
Citizens affected by the operation of AIA are supposed to be represented by the Local Authorities of the Municipalities around the airport. However, there are many complaints about this and so citizens have created associations and activist groups to lead the fight against aircraft noise, nuisance and environmental problems caused by the airport. They have resorted several times to the Greek authorities, the judiciary and the European Union, without however being able to see an improvement in their problems to date.
Governments’ Position
Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) is the authority responsible for performing certification, supervision and enforcement tasks in the field of civil aviation.
The Ministry of Environment and Energy is responsible for the Noise Mapping of the Athens & Thessaloniki International Airports.
All Governments have avoided coming into conflict with the airport administration, because the state receives sufficient revenue from it as it is considered that this contributes to the National Economy and Greece has not yet escaped the economic crisis that ‘disintegrated’ it several years ago. There are no satisfactory state control mechanisms and for this reason there is no sufficient data on aircraft noise recorded, neither on the websites of municipalities, nor of state agencies, nor on those of European organisations.
Expected developments
The terminal expansion plans of AIA have been known for some time, but now photorealistic images and videos are available that reveal what passengers using AIA will see. With the expansion projects, the terminal will resemble the letter Y as the existing building will be extended to its northern part and will acquire two new wings that will be able to use bellows to accommodate many more airplanes. At the same time, the terminal is also planned to be expanded to its southern part, where there will also be new bellows parking spaces for aircraft. It also seems that a facelift will be made to the overall exterior of the airport.
Members/Friends
Friend of UECNA: Environmental Noise in the EU
