Athens International Airport opened in 2001 in a pioneering public-private partnership, which saw it become the first major greenfield airport with the participation of the private sector. The airport has demonstrated a successful development strategy in both aeronautical and non-aeronautical activities, and exports its know-how to aviation partners around the world.
Last year saw two important anniversaries for Athens International Airport (AIA) – in March 2016 it celebrated 15 years since the official opening of the airport, while June marked 20 years since official commencement of the airport concession. It is a period punctuated by important moments, as the airport passed from adolescence to maturity, which has seen the development of a successful business model. Despite the difficult economic situation in Greece, AIA has consistently exceeded expectations with results that have outperformed macroeconomic indicators.
AIA shares the benefits of knowledge acquired by operating a world-class airport handling 20 million passengers in 2016 (+10.7%), and the experience gained from consultancy and project implementation services offered at airports around the world. This strong record of international consulting experience has seen it provide services in countries including Albania, Australia, Belgium, China, Cyprus, Germany, Hungary, India, Jordan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, Tunisia, and the UAE – a wide geographical spread.
The broad range of services offered centres on building flawless airport operations across all aspects of the business, from designing a competitive marketing strategy, right through to maximising the value of Information & Communications Technology assets, sharing ‘green’ methods of operation, ‘Airport City’ development, smart asset management, quality systems services, and ground handling services.
Having hosted the 2004 Olympic Games, Athens was in a unique position to help China’s airports prepare for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Indeed, AIA provided planning support and readiness preparation for transportation management and off-airport processing for Beijing 2008.
Meanwhile, airports in the Middle East are, of course, rapidly expanding their infrastructure. AIA has provided services in safety and airside operations at an airport in Qatar, while in Jordan it has delivered consulting services to an international airport in terms of baggage handling systems, IT & telecommunications, and concessionaire technical support. Among the myriad projects AIA has undertaken in the United Arab Emirates are development of the IT strategic master plan for a national aviation authority, user training on airport systems, and provision of passenger survey services.
Prestigious industry awards
This portfolio of services, and commitment to customer satisfaction, has been globally recognised through over 50 industry awards. AIA is the most awarded airport by Routes for the excellence of its marketing efforts, most recently winning at both Routes Europe 2015 and 2016, and it is trusted by international clients aiming to achieve traffic growth, route network expansion, and high levels of customer satisfaction. It has provided airline marketing consulting services to international airports in Russia and the UAE, among others.
AIA was also winner in the 10-25 million passenger category at the 2014 ACI EUROPE Best Airport Awards, while in 2013 AIA received the top European environmental airport award at the ACI EUROPE/ACI World Annual Congress. AIA’s team of specialists can help ensure the design of an effective environmental management policy, which assesses local environmental conditions, selection and implementation of appropriate initiatives, provision of training, and monitoring the whole range of environmental management initiatives.
AIA itself recently achieved Level 3+ of ACI’s Airport Carbon Accreditation, thereby becoming the first carbon neutral airport in Greece.
